
Class. 
Book_ 



-tiso. 





i/uzz^ 



OUUjLl'^ 




THE KLONDIKE 

Official Guide 

CANADA'S Great Gold Field 

THE YUKON DISTRICT 



PREPARED BY 



WM. OGILVIE 



Astronomer of the Department of the Interior, Dominion Land Surveyor 

and Explorer 

With Numerous Maps and Illustrations 

AND 

REGULATIONS GOVERNING PLACER MINING 



Published by authority of the Department of the Interior 
of the Dominion of Canada 



BUFFALO, N. Y. 
THE MATTHEWS-NORTHRUP CO, 

TORONTO, ONT. 

THE HUNTER, ROSE CO, LTD. 

J898 



Copyright, 1S98, 

BY 

THE MATTHEWS-NORTHRUP CO. 
Buffalo, New York. 



All Rights Reserved, 



Canadian Copyright, 

THE HUNTER, ROSE CO. LTD. 

Toronto, Ont. 



/ 



PREFACE. 




ERY few places have attracted the attention of the world 
'$ to the same extent as that fraction of the Yukon Dis- 
trict of the Dominion of Canada known as Klondike. 
This interest was aroused within the past few months, 
and has grown so vastly that scores of thousands are 
directing- their gaze thitherwards, hopeful of fortune 
and happiness. 

That the fullest information be accorded all so inclined, the 
Hon., The Minister of the Interior, directed that a hand book con- 
taining the completest possible information be issued as soon as 
practicable. Naturally this task fell to myself, as I had been more 
associated with that region than any other Canadian official. The 
work was commenced about the middle of December last, a few days 
after my return thence ; and when it is considered that maps had 
specially to be prepared, photographs selected and put in shape for 
reproduction, besides much original matter written, and many pre- 
vious reports by others and myself read, and extracts bearing on that 
district made, put in order, and connected in an intelligible way with 
the recent matter, it can be understood why in some respects this 
book is not as finished as I would like, more especially when we 
recollect that most of the work fell to myself, as my notes taken 
in the field as they were, often when my fingers were benumbed with 
cold and my senses almost paralyzed with long exposure to fierce 
wintry winds on the bleak mountain tops, were only decipherable by 
myself, and there was no time to transcribe them into legible hand. 

Taken as a whole, I venture to hope the book will fill a great 
gap, though there may be a few places left unstopped. These, how- 
ever, can be readily filled by those inclined to think for themselves. 
The extracts from previous reports have been revised and extended 
to what was known at time of writing ; so, if reference is made to 
those reports, differences will be found. 

The recent part is as full as I thought it necessary to make it. 



vi PREFACE. 

To go into detail enough to leave no question unanswered, 
would take much more time than I had at my command. 

I know from experience that the many-headed propound ques- 
tions, various, relevant and irrelevant, and were I inclined, could fill 
this volume with specimens of such, unique in their way. Many, 
many queries of that kind are ignored on these pages, but I look for 
the sympathy of practical, self-reliant men and women. 

The maps have been very hurriedly prepared, and embrace in a 
crude way all the available information, both from actual survey, and 
observations and reports. 

On the large map, showing the various routes, it will be noted 
that where the route follows a stream or other waterway it can be 
fairly closely located. When it is overland, we must not assume 
more than that the line of route marked in a general way indicates 
where it is intended to put a road. This is because no survey has 
been made of such routes, or if it has, no returns of it were available. 

WILLIAM OGILVIE. 

Ottawa, January 27th, 1898. 



CONTENTS. 



Large Map of Western Part of the Dominion of Canada, 
Frontispiece, 

Author's Preface, 

Railway Communication, .... 

The Yukon District, 

Mr. Ogilvie's Exploration of 1887, 

From Dyea Inlet to the Alaska Boundary, 

Survey of Fortymile River, 

Description of the Yukon, 

Agricultural Capabilities of the Yukon Basin, 

Minerals, ....... 

Metals Found on the River, 

The Government of the Yukon Territory, 

More Recent Discoveries, 

Map of the Western Portion of the Dominion of Canada 

Seven Sectional Maps North-Western Canada, 

Other Minerals Found in the Yukon District, 

Hints on Prospecting, 

ROUTES — Prince Albert, 

Edmonton, 

Cariboo and Cassair, 

Taku, 

White Pass, . 

Dyea or Chilcoot Pass, 

Dalton, 

James and Hudson Bay, 

Ocean and River Route, 
Food Supplies, etc., .... 

Tents, 

REGULATIONS — Governing Placer Mining, 

Governing Lease to Dredge, 



Page. 



5 
8 

9 
14 
16 

30 
32 

• 56 

■ 63 
. 64 

80 

■ 83 
Opposite 88 
Opposite 89 

. 8& 

. 90 

95 

• 95 

104 
106 
106 
107 
109 
1 10 
121 
124 

• 135 

• 137 

• I4S 



Railway and Steamboat 
Communication 



BY AN 



ALL CANADIAN ROUTE. 



Since the following pages were written the Canadian Government has com- 
pleted arrangements which will, during the coming season, remove the great diffi- 
culties which have heretofore stood in the way of travel and transport to the Yukon 
District. The route to be opened is by steamer from Victoria or Vancouver to 
Wrangel, thence by the Stikine River to Telegraph Creek, thence overland 150 
miles to Teslin Lake, thence down Teslin Lake, the Hootaluqua, Lewis and Yukon 
Rivers to Dawson City. Large steamers run the year round to the mouth of the 
Stikine River. From that point a sleigh road to Teslin Lake will be open for travel 
with stopping places every 25 miles, on the loth March. Persons going in can thus 
reach Teslin Lake and make their preparations to go down from that point by 
water when the ice goes out, which is usually about May 15th. "While those who 
wish to prospect in the south-eastern part of the Yukon District may find to their 
advantage to go by one of the overland routes, the great bulk of the travel to 
Dawson City and its neighborhood will find an easy route by way of the Stikine and 
Teslin Lake. 

River steamers will ply all summer from the mouth of the Stikine to Telegraph 
Creek. A wagon road with abundance of transportation facilities will be available 
from Telegraph Creek to Teslin Lake, and steamers will be plying on this lake and 
the Hootaluqua, Lewis and Yukon Rivers. On the First day of September a railway 
will be in operation from Telegraph Creek to Teslin Lake, so that from that time 
until the ice forms in the Fall, generally about October 20th, there will be an unin- 
terrupted steamboat and railway connection to Dawson City. Persons travelling by 
this route, or any of the all Canadian overland routes described in the following 
pamphlet, will avoid payment of duties if their outfits are purchased in Canada. 



Canada^s Great Gold Field 



-<«$-**&^- 



THE YUKON DISTRICT 



-^^*>$s>- 



THE YUKON DISTRICT com- 
prises, speaking generally, that part of 
the North-west Territories lying west 
of the water shed of the Mackenzie 
River ; most of it is drained by the 
Yukon River and its tributaries. It 
covers a distance of about 650 miles 
along the river from the coast range of 
mountains. 

The tirst people from civilization to 
enter the country were the traders for 
the Hudson Bay Company. In the 
year 1840 Mr. Robert Campbell was 
commissioned by Sir George Simpson 
to explore the Upper Liard and to cross 
the height-of-land in search of any river 
flowing to the westward. After as- 
cending the river to its head waters he 
struck across to the head of the Pelly 
River, thence down the Pelly to the 
confluence of the Lewes, at which point 
he turned back, his men having become 
discouraged by the stories of the Wood 
Indians encamped there, who repre- 
sented that the lower portion of the 
river was inhabited by a tribe of can- 
nibals. In 1847 Fort Yukon was es- 
tablished at the mouth of the Porcupine 
by Mr. A. H. Murray, another member 
of the Hudson Bay Company. 
In 1848 Campbell established Fort Selkirk at the confluence of the Pelly and 
Lewes Rivers; it was plundered and destroyed in 1852 by the Coast Indians, and 
only the ruins now exist of what was at one time the most important post of the 
Hudson Bay Company to the west of the Rocky Mountains in the far north. In 1869 
the Hudson Bay Company's officer was notified to leave Fort Yukon by the United 
States Government officers, they having ascertained by astronomical observations 
that the post was not located in British territory. The officer thereupon ascended 
the Porcupine to a point which was supposed to be within British jurisdiction, 
where he established Rampart House ; but in 1890 Mr. J. H. Turner of the United 
States Coast Survey found it to be 20 miles within the lines of the United States. 
Consequently in 1891 the post was moved 20 miles further up the river to be within 
British territory. 




From Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 
Chief Charlie. 



lo CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

The next people to enter the country for tradhig purposes were Messrs. Harper 
and McQuesten. They have been trading in the country since 1874, and have 
occupied numerous posts all along the river, the greater number of which have been 
abandoned. Mr. Harper was located as a trader at Fort Selkirk, and Mr. McQues- 
ten is in the employ of the Alaska Commercial Company at Circle City, which is the 
distributing point for the vast regions surrounding Birch Creek, Alaska. In 1882 a 
number of miners entered the Yukon country by the Dyea Pass ; it is still the only 
route used to any extent by the miners, and is shorter than the other passes, though 
not the lowest. In 1883 Lieutenant Schwatka crossed this same pass and descended 
the Lewes and Yukon Rivers to the ocean. 

The history of the Yukon District within recent years will be best described by 
the following extract from the annual report of the Deputy of the Minister of the 
Interior for the year 1895 • 

"In the year 1887 the Hon. Thomas White, then Minister of the Interior, 
authorized the organization of an expedition having for its object the exploration of 
that region of the North-west Territories of Canada which is drained by the Yukon 
River. The work was entrusted to Dr. George M. Dawson, now the Director of 
the Geological Survey, and Mr. Wm. Ogilvie, the well-known explorer and surveyor. 
Dr. Dawson devoted the whole of that season, and Mr. Ogilvie a period covering 
nearly two years, to obtaining geological, topographical, and general information, 
chiefly respecting the tract of country lying adjacent to the 141st meridian of 
longitude, which, by the Treaty of St Petersburg, is designated as the boundary 
line from the neighborhood of Mount St. Elias to the Arctic Ocean between Alaska 
and the adjoining possessions of the British Crown which now form part of the 
North-west Territories of Canada. 

The explorers found that in proximity to the boundary line there existed exten- 
sive and valuable placer gold mines, in which even then as many as three hundred 
miners were at work. Mr. Ogilvie determined, by a series of lunar observations, 
the point at which the Yukon River is intersected by the 141st meridian, and marked 
approximately the same on the ground. He also determined and marked roughly 
the point at which the western affluent of the Yukon, known as Fortymile River, is 
crossed by the same meridian line, that point being situated at a distance of about 
twenty-three miles from the mouth of the creek. This survey proved that the places 
which had been selected as the most convenient, owing to the physical conformation 
of the region, from which to distribute the supplies imported for the various mining 
camps, and from which to conduct the other business incident to the mining opera- 
tions — places situate at the confluence of the Fortymile River and the Yukon, and to 
which the names of Fortymile and Cudahy have been given — are well within Canadian 
territory. The greater proportion of the mines then being worked Mr. Ogilvie 
found to be on the Canadian side of the international boundary line, but he reported 
the existence of some mining fields to the south, the exact position of which with 
respect to the boundary he did not have the opportunity to fix. 

" The number of persons engaged in mining in the locality mentioned has stead- 
ily increased year by year since the date of Mr. Ogilvie's survey, and it is estimated 
that at the commencement of the past season not less than one thousand men were 
so employed. Incident to this mineral development there must follow a correspond- 
ing growth in the volume of business of all descriptions, particularly the importa- 
tion of dutiable goods, and the occupation of tracts of the public lands for mining 
purposes which according to the mining regulations are subject to the payment of 
certain prescribed dues and charges. The Alaska Commercial Company, for many 
years subsequent to the retirement of the Hudson Bay Company, had a practical 
monopoly of the trade of the Yukon, carrying into the country and delivering at 
various points along the river, without regard to the international boundary Hne or 
the customs laws and regulations of Canada, such articles of commerce as were 
required for the prosecution of the fur trade and latterly of placer mining, these 
being the only two existing industries. With the discovery of gold, however, came 
the organization of a competing company known as the North American Transpor- 
tation and Trading Company, having its headquarters in Chicago and its chief trad- 



THE YUKON DISTRICT, 




From Photo, by W. OgUvie. 
Mr. Harper, Yukon Pioneer. 

a large revenue was being lost to the 
public exchequer under the then exist- 
ing conditions. 

" For the purpose of ascertaining 
officially and authoritatively the condi- 
tion of affairs to which the correspond- 
ence referred to in the preceding para- 
graph relates, the Honourable the 
President of the Privy Council, during 
the spring of 1894, despatched Inspec- 
tor Charles Constantine, of the North- 
west Mounted Police Force, accom- 
panied by Sergeant Brown, to Cudahy 
and the mining camps in its vicinity. 
The report made by Mr. Constantine 
on his return established the substan- 
tial accuracy of the representations 
already referred to. The value of the 
total output of gold for the season of 
1894 he estimated at $300,000, a very 
large sum considering the relatively 
short period to which mining opera- 
tions are, by the nature of the climate, 
confined. 

" The facts recited clearly estab- 
lish — first, that the time had arrived 
when it became the duty of the Gov- 
ernment of Canada to make more 



ing and distributing post at Cudahy. 
This company has been engaged in this 
trade for over three years, and during 
the past season despatched two ocean 
steamers from Seattle to St.^iMichael, 
at the mouth of the Yukon, the mer- 
chandise from which was, at the last 
mentioned point, transshipped into 
river steamers and carried to points 
inland, but chiefly to the company's 
distributing centre within Canadian ter- 
ritory. Importations of considerable 
value, consisting of the immediately 
requisite supplies of the miners, and 
their tools, also reach the Canadian por- 
tion of the Yukon District from Juneau, 
in the United States, by way of the 
Dyea Inlet, the mountain passes, and 
the chain of waterways leading there- 
from to Cudahy. Upon none of these 
importations had any duty been col- 
lected, except a sum of $3,248.80 paid 
to Inspector Constantine in 1894, by 
the two companies mentioned above, 
and it is safe to conclude, especially 
when it is remembered that the coun- 
try produces none of the articles con- 
sumed within it except fresh meat, that 



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From Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 
Frederick W. Hart, Yukon Pioneer. 



CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 



efficient provision for the maintenance of order, the enforcement of the laws, and 
the administration of justice in the Yukon country, especially in that section of it in 
which placer mining for gold is being prosecuted upon such an extensive scale, 
situated near to the boundary separating the North-west Territories from the posses- 
sions of the United States in Alaska ; and, second, that while such measures as were 
necessary to that end were called for in the interests of humanity, and particularly 
for the security and safety of the lives and property of the Canadian subjects of Her 
Majesty resident in that country who are engaged in legitimate business pursuits, it 
was evident that the revenue justly due to the Government of Canada, under its cus- 
toms, excise and land laws, and which would go a long way to pay the expenses of 
government, was being lost for the want of adequate machinery for its collection. 

" Accordingly in June last a detachment* of twenty members of the Mounted 
Police Force including officers was detailed for service in that portion of the North- 
west Territories. The officer in command, in addition to the magisterial and other 

duties he is required to perform by 
virtue of his office and under instruc- 
tions from the Department of Mounted 
Police, was duly authorized to repre- 
sent where necessary, and until other 
arrangements can be made, all the de- 
partments of the government having 
interests in that region. Particularly 
he is authorized to perform the duties 
of Dominion lands agent, collector of 
customs, and collector of inland rev- 
enue. At the same time instructions 
were given Mr. William Ogilvie, the 
surveyor referred to as having, with 
Dr. Dawson, been entrusted with the 
conduct of the first government expedi- 
tion to the Yukon, to proceed again to 
that district for the purpose of con- 
tinuing and extending the work of 
determining the i4TSt meridian, of 
laying out building lots and mining 
claims, and generally of performing 
such duties as may be entrusted to him 
from time to time. Mr. Ogilvie's quali- 
fications as a surveyor, and his previous 
experience as explorer of this section 
of the North-west, peculiarly fit him 
for the task. 

" As it appears quite certain, from 
the report made by Mr. Ogilvie on his 
return to Ottawa in 1889, and from the report of Mr. Constantine, that the operations 
of the miners are being conducted upon streams which have their sources in the United 
States Territory of Alaska, and flow into Canada on their way to join the Yukon, 
and as doubtless some of the placer diggings under development are situated on the 
United States side of the boundary, it is highly desirable, both for the purpose of 
settling definitely to which country any land occupied for mining or other purposes 
actually belongs, and in order that the jurisdiction of the courts and officers of the 
United States and Canada, for both civil and criminal purposes, may be established, 
that the determination of the 141st meridian west of Greenwich from the point of 
its intersection with the Yukon, as marked by Mr. Ogilvie in 1887-88, for a consider- 
able distance south of the river, and possibly also for some distance to the north, 

* The detachment was made up as follows : — Inspector C. Constantine, Officer Commanding Yukon 
Detachment N. W. M. Police ; Inspector, D. A. E. Strickland ; Assistant-Surgeon, A. E. Wills ; 2 
Stafif Sergeants ; 2 Corporals; 13 Constables. 




Leroy N. McQuesten, One of the Yukon Pioneers. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



13 



'^fiJ' 





14 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

should be proceeded with at once. Mr. Ogilvie's instructions require him to go on 
with the survey with all convenient speed, but in order that this work may be effec- 
tive for the accomplishment of the object in view the co-operation of the Govern- 
ment of the United States is necessary. Correspondence is in progress through the 
proper authorities with a view to obtaining this co-operation. It may be mentioned 
that a United States surveyor has also determined the points at which the Yukon 
River and Fortymile River are intersected by the 141st meridian." 

Since the date of the above report, Mr. D. W. Davis has been appointed collector 
of customs for the Yukon district. 

The business of the Department of the Interior having grown to such propor- 
tions that Inspector Constantine was no longer able to deal with it and discharge 
the numerous other duties assigned to him, Mr. Thomas Fawcett, Dominion Topo- 
graphical Surveyor, has been appointed gold commissioner, surveyor and general 
agent of the Minister of the Interior for the district. Accompanying him and 
acting under his instructions are two Dominion land surveyors, Jas. Gibbons and 
E. D. Bolton, with their parties. 

MR. OGILVIE^S EXPLORATION OF J887. 

Mr. W. Ogilvie describes as follows his trip down the Yukon River in 1887. 

The first news I received on landing at Chilkat was that there was trouble in 
the interior, on the Lewes River, in the vicinity where I intended to go. A miner, 
who had recently arrived from the interior, stated that there had been a fight 
between the Indians and the miners at the mouth of- Stewart River. The result of 
the affair, he alleged, was that four Indians and two white men had been killed, and 
that the Indians had come up the river as far as the caiion to lie in wait for any 
white men who might be going into the country. I did not have an opportunity of 
questioning him, as he had gone to Juneau the day before I arrived. The rumour 
seemed to me to be somewhat improbable ; but true or false, it was an unpleasant 
one to hear, and the only way to verify it was to go and see whether the Indians 
were hostile or not. Happily the whole story proved to be untrue. I subsequently 
learned from the miners in the interior that he had had difficulties with them, in 
consequence of which he was ordered in mid-winter to leave the region, which the 
miners consider equivalent to a sentence of death. Strange to say, he succeeded 
in getting out alive, making a distance of upwards of 500 miles of the most danger- 
ous and difficult travelling. He started in the month of February, I think, and 
reached the coast in the month of May. It is reported that on his way out he had 
more trouble with an Indian whom he hired to accompany him. Another miner 
named Williams started from Stewart River for the coast in the month of Decem- 
ber, carrying a message from Harper, McQuesten & Co., and mail from the miners. 
This man had the advantage at intervals of the assistance of the miners, a few of 
whom were scattered along the river in the vicinity of the Teslin (the Newberry of 
Schwatka). At the summit of the coast range he was detained by a snow storm 
for three days, and the hardships he suffered brought on pneumonia, from the 
effects of which he died. 

It is said by those familiar with the locality that the storms which rage in the 
upper altitudes of the coast range during the greater part of the time, from October 
to March, are terrific. A man caught in one of them runs the risk of losing his life, 
unless he can reach shelter in a short time. During the summer there is nearly 
always a wind blowing from the sea up Chatham Strait and Lynn Canal, which lie in 
almost a straight line with each other, and at the head of Lynn Canal are Chilkat 
and Chilkoot Inlets. The distance from the coast down these channels to the open 
sea is about 380 miles. The mountains on each side of the water confine the cur- 
rents of air, and deflect inclined currents in the direction of the axis of the channel, 
so that there is nearly always a strong wind blowing up the channel. Coming from 
the sea, this wind is heavily charged with moisture, which is precipitated when the 
air current strikes the mountains, and the fall of rain and snow is consequently very 
heavy. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



15 



After landing at Chilkoot the weather continued very wet for threedays, so that 
I could not do anything in the way of commencing the survey, and during the delay 
myself and party were employed in making preparations for carrying the instru- 
ments provisions and other baggage up to the head of Dyea Inlet, a distance of 




2o>4 miles. This was accomplished by securing the services of two boats belong- 
ing to a trader, which were towed to the head of the Dyea Inlet by the United 
States gunboat " Pinta," to the commander of which (Capt. Newell) I owe a debt 
of gratitude for his very obliging and attentive treatment of myself and party. 



CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 




From Photo, by IP'. Ogtlvie. 
Looking Down Chilkoot Pass and Inlet from a Point 1 1^ Miles aljove Tide-water (Raining). 



FROM DYEA INLET TO THE ALASKA BOUNDARY. 

On the 30th of May I commenced the survey by connecting Pyramid Island in 
Chilkat Inlet with Chilkoot Inlet at Haines mission. At this point a Protestant mis- 
sion was established some years ago ; but it is now abandoned, owing, as I was in- 
formed, to the very unpleasant conduct of the Chilkoot Indians. I could not learn 
that they had committed any overt act of hostility, but it appears the missionary 
tried to relieve the sufferings of a sick Indian child. Unfortunately, the child died, 
and the father attributed the death to the missionary, and from that time acted in so 
suspicious a manner towards the children of the latter, that he considered it unsafe 
to remain in the vicinity, and moved into Juneau. 

The teacher of the United States Government school for Indians at Haines mis- 
sion. Col. Ripinsky, told me he had got into trouble in the same way. A sick Indian 
to whom he administered medicine at first became much worse, in consequence, 
apparently, of the treatment, and during this time the patient's relatives walked 
about in an exciting manner, manifesting very unpleasant signs of hostility. Fortu- 
nately the man finally recovered, but Col. Ripinsky has no doubt that his life would 
not have been safe had he died. 

The latitude and longitude of a point near Pyramid Island were determined in 
1869 by a United States Coast Survey party, who were sent out to observe the 
eclipse of the sun in the month of August of that year. The position then deter- 
mined is given in the " Alaska Coast Pilot " as latitude 59° 11' 43" .0, longitude 135° 
27' 04" .5. The longitude was determined by chronometers, thirteen having been 
used by the expedition. Where the point was fixed I could not ascertain, so I took 
the centre of the island. This island is pyramidal in form, as seen from the south- 
west or north-east, and about 500 yards long by 200 wide. It is composed of sand 
and clay, and rises about 80 feet above high tide, being evidently the result of 
glacial action. At low tide there is very little water on the north side of the island, 
and it is only a question of a few years until it will cease to be an island altogether, 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



17 



owing to the constant accumulation of drift brought down by the streams flowing 
into the inlet. 

To carry the survey from the island across to Chilkoot Inlet I had to get up on 
the mountains north of Haines mission, and from there could see both inlets. Owing 
to the bad weather I could get no observation for azimuth, and had to produce the 
survey from Pyramid Island to Dyea Inlet by reading the angles of deflection 
between the courses. At Dyea Inlet I got my first observation, and deduced the 
azimuths of my courses up to that point. Dyea Inlet has evidently been the valley 
of a glacier ; its sides are steep and smooth from glacial action ; and this, with the 
wind almost constantly blowing landward, renders getting upon the shore dififlcult. 
Some long sights were therefore necessary. The survey was made up to the head 
of the inlet on the 2nd of June. Preparations were then commenced for taking the 
supplies and instruments over the coast range of mountains to the head of Lake Lin- 
deman on the Lewes River. Commander Newell kindly aided me in making arrange- 
ments with the Indians, and did all he could to induce them to be reasonable in 
their demands. This, however, neither he nor any one else could accomplish. They 
refused to carry to the lake for less than $20 per hundred pounds, and as they had 
learned that the expedition was an English one, the second chief of the Chilkoot 
Indians recalled some memories of an old quarrel which the tribe had with the 
English many years ago, in which an uncle of his was killed, and he thought we 
should pay for the loss of his uncle by being charged an exorbitant price for our 
packing, of which he had the sole control. Commander Newell told him I had a 
permit from the Great Father at Washington to pa§s through his country safely, that 
he would see that I did so, and if the Indians interfered with me they would be pun- 
ished for doing so. After much talk they consented to carry our stuff to the summit 
of the mountain for $10 per hundred pounds. This is about two-thirds of the whole 



Pas';. 




From Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 
Looking Up Chilkoot Pass from a Point i^ Miles above Tide-water (Raining). 



i8 CANADx\'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

distance, includes all the climbing and all the woods, and is by far the most difficult 
part of the way. 

On the 6th of June 120 Indians, men, women and children, started for the 
summit. I sent two of my party with them to see the goods delivered at the place 
agreed upon. Each carrier when given a pack also got a ticket, on which was in- 
scribed the contents of the pack, its weight, and the amount the individual was to 
get for carrying it. They were made to understand that they had to produce these 
tickets on delivering their packs, but were not told for what reason. As each pack 
was delivered one of my men receipted the ticket and returned it. The Indians did 
not seem to understand the import of this ; a few of them pretended to have lost 
their tickets ; and as they could not get paid without them, my assistant, who had 
duplicates of every ticket, furnished them with receipted copies, after examining 
their packs. 

While they were packing to the summit I was producing the survey, and I met 
them on their return at the foot of the canon, about eight miles from the coast, 
where I paid them. They came to the camp in the early morning before I was up, 
and for about two hours there was quite a hubbub. When paying them I tried to 
get their names, but very few of them would give any Indian name, nearly all, after 
a little reflection, giving some common English name My list contained little else 
than Jack, Tom, Joe, Charley, etc., some of which were duplicated three and four 
times. I then found why some of them had pretended to lose their tickets at the 
summit. Three or four who had thus acted presented themselves twice for payment, 
producing first the receipted ticket, afterwards the one they claimed to have lost, de- 
manding pay for both. They were much taken aback when they found that their 
duplicity had been discovered. 

These Indians are perfectly heartless. They will not render even the smallest 
aid to each other without payment ; and if not to each other, much less to a white 
man. I got one of them, whom I had previously assisted with his pack, to take me 
and two of my party over a small creek in his canoe. After putting us across he 
asked for money, and I gave him half a dollar. Another man stepped up and de- 
manded pay, stating that the canoe was his. To see what the result would be, I 
gave to him the same amount as to the first. Immediately there were three or four 
more claimants for the canoe. I dismissed them with a blessing, and made up my 
mind that I would wade the next creek. 

While paying them I was a little apprehensive of trouble, for they insisted on 
crowding into my tent, and for myself and the four men who were with me to have 
attempted to eject them would have been to invite trouble. I am strongly of the 
opinion that these Indians would have been much more difficult to deal with if they 
had not known that Commander Newell remained in the inlet to see that I got 
through without trouble. 

While making the survey from the head of tide water I took the azimuths and 
altitudes of several of the highest peaks around the head of the inlet, in order to 
locate them, and obtain an idea of the general height of the peaks in the coast 
range. As it does not appear to have been done before, I have taken the oppor- 
tunity of naming all the peaks, the positions of which I fixed in the above way. 
The names and altitudes appear on my map. 

While going up from the head of canoe navigation on the Dyea River, I took 
the angles of elevation of each station from the preceding one. I would have done 
this from tide water up, but found many of the courses so short and with so little 
increase in height that with the instrument I had it was inappreciable. From these 
angles I have computed the height of the summit of the Dyea Pass, above the 
head of canoe navigation, as it appeared to me in June, 1887, and find it to be 
3,378 feet. What depth of snow there was I cannot say. The head of canoe 
navigation I estimate at about 120 feet above tide water. Dr. Dawson gives it as 
124 feet. 

I determined the descent from the summit to Lake Lindeman by carrying the 
aneroid from the lake to the summit and back again, the interval of time from start 
to return being about eight hours. Taking the mean of the readings at the lake, 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



19 




20 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

start and return, and the single reading at the summit, the height of th- summit 
above the lake was found to be 1,237 feet. While making the survey from the 
summit down to the lake I took the angles of depression of each station from the 
precedmg one, and from these angles I deduced the difference of height which I 
found to be 1,354 feet, or 117 feet more than that found by the aneroid ' This is 




quite a large difference ; but when we consider the altitude of the place, the sudden 
changes of temperature, and the atmospheric conditions, it is not more than one 
might expect. 

While at Juneau I heard reports of a low pass from the head of Chilkoot Inlet 
to the head waters of Lewes River. During the time I was at the head of Dyea 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 21 

Inlet I made inquiries regarding it, and found that there was such a pass, but could 
learn nothing definite about it from either whites or Indians. As Capt. Moore, who 
accompanied me, was very anxious to go through it, and as the reports of the Dyea 
Pass indicated that no wagon road or railroad could ever be built through it, while 
the new pass appeared, from what little knowledge I could get of it, to be much 
lower and possibly feasible for a wagon road, I determined to send the captain by 
that way, if I could get an Indian to accompany him. This, I found, would be dif- 
ficult to do. None of the Chilkoots appeared to know anything of the pass, and I 
concluded that they wished to keep its existence and condition a secret. The 
Tagish, or Stick Indians, as the interior Indians are locally called, are afraid to do 
anything in opposition to the wishes of the Chilkoots ; so it was difficult to get any 
of them to join Capt. Moore ; but after much talk and encouragement from the 
whites around, one of them named " Jim " was induced to go. He had been through 
this pass before, and proved reliable and useful. The information obtained from 




Boulder Creek Froi7i Photo, by J. J. Mc Arthur. 

The Klehini River Flats — Looking Down and Across Boulder Creek. 



Capt. Moore's exploration I have incorporated in my plan of the survey from Dyea 
Inlet, but it is not as complete as I would have liked. I have named this pass 
" White Pass," in honour of the late Hon. Thos. White, Minister of the Interior, 
under whose authority the expedition was organized. Commencing at Dyea Inlet, 
about two miles south of its north end, it follows up the valley of the Skaguay 
River to its source, and thence down the valley of another river which Capt. Moore 
reported to empty into the Takone or Windy Arm of Tagish Lake. Dr. Dawson 
says this stream empties into the eastern arm of the Tagish Lake, and in that event 
Capt. Moore is mistaken. Capt. Moore did not go all the way through to the lake, 
but assumed from reports he heard from the miners and others that the stream 
flowed into Windy Arm, and this also was the idea of the Indian " Jim " from what 

The distance from the head of Dyea Inlet to the summit of the pass is 15 miles, and the whole 
length of the pass to Lake Lindeman is 23 miles. 



22 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

I could gather from his remarks in broken English and Chinook. Capt. Moore esti- 
mates the distance from tide water to the summit at about i8 miles, and from the 
summit to the lake at about 22 to 23 miles. He reports the pass as thickly timbered 
all the way through. 

The timber line on the south side of the Dyea Pass, as determined by barom- 
eter reading, is about 2,300 feet above the sea, while on the north side it is about 
1,000 feet below the summit. This large difference is due, I think, to the different 
conditions in the two places. On the south side the valley is narrow and deep, and 
the sun cannot produce its full effect. The snow also is much deeper there, owing 
to the quantity which drifts in from the surrounding mountains. On the north side 
the surface is sloping, and more exposed to the sun's rays. On the south side the 
timber is of the class peculiar to the coast, and on the north that peculiar to the 
interior. The latter would grow at a greater altitude than the coast timber. • It is 
possible that the summit of White Pass is not higher than the timber line on the 



" '^'?^''^j^'^^^*liiili|PiwB|l||^^^^ 


' ■ '-'^a^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^l 


--^-^— .-...^-,„^„^„„I^_-_:,-. .^-fer^^-^Pmilp 


*i.vS»v«'!r :A»i»- 11: '-ii«i«ti,ite,.i« »„i,«i.,_i^i ._ : . 





From Photo, by W. O^ilvie. 



Skaguay Bay — Steamer Quadra in Foreground. 



north of the Dyea Pass, or about 2,500 feet above tide water, and it is possibly even 
lower than this, as the timber in a valley such as the White Pass would hardly live 
at the same altitude as on the open slope on the north side. 

Capt. Moore has had considerable experience in building roads in mountainous 
countries. He considers that this would be an easy route for a wagon road com- 
pared with some roads he has seen in British Columbia. Assuming his distances to 
be correct, and the height of the pass to be probably about correctly indicated, the 
grades would not be very steep, and a railroad could easily be carried through if 
necessary. 

After completing the survey down to the lake, I set about getting my baggage 
down, too. Of all the Indians who came to the summit with packs, only four or five 
could be induced to remain and pack down to the lake, although I was paying them 
at the rate of $4 per hundred pounds. After one trip down only two men remained, 
and they only in hopes of stealing something. One of them appropriated a pair of 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



23 




24 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

boots, and was much surprised to find that he had to pay for them on being settled 
with. I could not blame them much for not caring to work, as the weather was very 
disagreeable — it rained or snowed almost continuously. After the Indians left I 
tried to get down the stuff with the aid of my own men, but it was slavish and 
unhealthy labour, and after the first trip one of them was laid up with what appeared 
to be inflammatory rheumatism. The first time the party crossed, the sun was shin- 
ing brightly, and this brought on snow blindness, the pain of which only those who 
have suffered from it can realize. I had two sleds with me which were made in 
Juneau specially for the work of getting over the mountains and down the lakes on 
the ice. With these I succeeded in bringing about a ton and a half to the lakes, but 
I found that the time it would take to get all down in this way would seriously inter- 
fere with the programme arranged with Dr. Dawson, to say nothing of the suffering 
of the men and myself, and the liability to sickness which protracted physical exer- 
tion under such uncomfortable conditions and continued suffering from snow blind- 
ness expose us to. I had with me a white man who lived at the head of the inlet 
with a Tagish Indian woman. This man had a good deal of influence with the 
Tagish tribe, of whom the greater number were then in the neighbourhood where he 
resided, trying to get some odd jobs of work, and I sent him to the head of the inlet 
to try and induce the Tagish Indians to undertake the transportation, offering them 
$5 per hundred pounds. In the meantime Capt. Moore and the Indian "Jim " had 
rejoined me. I had their assistance for a day or two, and "Jim's " presence aided 
indirectly in inducing the Indians to come to my relief. 

The Tagish are little more than slaves to the more powerful coast tribes, and 
are in constant dread of offending them in any way. One of the privileges which 
the coast tribes claim is the exclusive right to all work on the coast or in its vicin- 
ity, and the Tagish are afraid to dispute this claim. When my white man asked 
the Tagish to come over and pack they objected on the grounds mentioned. After 
considerable ridicule of their cowardice, and explanation of the fact that they had 
the exclusive right to all work in their own country, the country on the north side 
of the coast range being admitted by the coast Indians to belong to the Tagish 
tribe just as the coast tribes had the privilege of doing all the work on the coast 
side of the mountains, and that one of their number was already working with me 
unmolested, and likely to continue so, nine of them came over, and in fear and 
trembling began to pack down to the lake. After they were at work for a few 
days some of the Chilkoots came out and also started to work. Soon I had quite 
a number at work, and was getting my stuff down quite fast. But this good for- 
tune was not to continue. Owing to the prevailing wet, cold weather on the moun- 
tains and the difficulty of getting through the soft, wet snow, the Indians soon 
began to quit work for a day or two at a time, and to gamble with one another for 
the wages already earned. Many of them wanted to be paid in full, but this I 
positively refused, knowing that to do so was to have them all apply for their 
earnings and leave me until necessity compelled them to go to work again. I once 
for all made them distinctly understand that I would not pay any of them until the 
whole of the stuff was down. As many of them had already earned from twelve to 
fifteen dollars each, to lose which was a serious matter to them, they reluctantly 
resumed work and kept at it until all was delivered. This done, I paid them off, 
and set about getting my outfit across the lake, which I did with my own party and 
the two Peterborough canoes which I had with me. 

These two canoes travelled about 3,000 miles by rail and about 1,000 miles by 
steamship before being brought into service. They did considerable work on Chil- 
koot and Dyea Inlets, and were then packed over to the head of Lewes River 
(Lake Lindeman), from where they were used in making the survey of Lewes and 
Yukon Rivers. In this work they made about 650 landings. They were then 
transported on sleighs from the boundary on the Yukon to navigable water on the 
Porcupine. 

In the spring of 1888 they descended the latter river, heavily loaded, and 
through much rough water, to the mouth of Bell River, and up it to McDougall 
Pass. They were then carried over the pass to Poplar River and were used in 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



25 



going down the latter to Peel River, and thence up Mackenzie River 1,400 miles ; 
or, exclusive of railway and ship carriage, they were carried about 170 miles and 
did about 2,500 miles of work for the expedition, making in all about 1,700 land- 
ings in no easy manner and going through some very bad water. I left them at 




Fort Chipewyan in fairly good condition, and, with a little painting, they would go 
through the same ordeal again. 

After getting all my outfit over to the foot of Lake Lindeman I set some of 
the party to pack it to the head of Lake Bennett. The stream between these two 



26 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

lakes is too shallow and rough to permit of canoe navigation, and everything had 
to be portaged the greater part of the way. 

I employed the rest of the party in looking for timber to build a boat to carry 
my outfit of provisions and implements down the river to the vicinity of the inter- 
national boundary, a distance of about 700 miles. It took several days to find a 
tree large enough to make plank for the boat I wanted, as the timber around the 
upper end of the lake is small and scrubby. My boat was finished on the evening 
of the nth of July, and on the 12th I started a portion of the party to load it and 
go ahead with it and the outfit to the canon. They had instructions to examine 
the caiion and, if necessary, to carry a part of the outfit past it — in any case, 
enough to support the partjT^ back to the coast should accident necessitate such 
procedure. With the rest of the party I started to carry on the survey, which may 
now be said to have fairly started down the lakes. This proved tedious work, on 
account of the stormy weather. 

In the summer months there is nearly always a wind blowing in from the 
coast ; it blows down the lakes and produces quite a heavy swell. This would not 
prevent the canoes going with the decks on, but, as we had to land every mile or so, 
the rollers breaking on the generally flat beach proved very troublesome. On this 
account I found I could not average more than ten miles per day on the lakes, little 
more than half of what could be done on the river. 

The survey was completed to the canon on the 20th of July. There I found the 
party with the large boat had arrived on the iSth, having carried a part of the 
supplies past the canon, and were awaiting my arrival to run through it with the 
rest in the boat. Before doing so, however, I made an examination of the canon. 
The rapids below it, particularly the last rapid of the series (called the White Horse 
by the miners), I found would not be safe to run. I sent two men through the 
canon in one of the canoes to await the arrival of the boat, and to be ready in case 
of an accident to pick us up. Every man in the party was supplied with a life- 
preserver, so that should a casualty occur we would all have floated. Those in the 
canoe got through all right ; but they would not have liked to repeat the trip. 
They said the canoe jumped about a great deal more than they thought it would, 
and I had the same experience when going through in the boat. 

The passage through is made in about three minutes, or at the rate of about 
12^ miles an hour. If the boat is kept clear of the sides there is not much danger 
in high water ; but in low water there is a rock in the middle of the channel, near 
the upper end of the canon, that renders the passage more difficult. I did not see 
this rock myself, but got my information from some miners I met in the interior, 
who described it as being about 150 yards down from the head and a little to the 
west of the middle of the channel. In low water it barely projects above the sur- 
face. AVhen I passed through there was no indication of it, either from the bank 
above or from the boat. 

The distance from the head to the foot of the caiion is five-eighths of a mile. 
There is a basin about midway in it about 150 yards in diameter. This basin is 
circular in form, with steep, sloping sides about 100 feet high. The lower part of 
the canon is much rougher to run through than the upper part, the fall being appar- 
ently much greater. The sides are generally perpendicular, about 80 to 100 feet high, 
and consist of basalt, in some places showing hexagonal columns. 

The White Horse Rapids are about three-eighths of a mile long. They are the 
most dangerous rapids on the river, and have seldom been run through in boats 
except by accident. They are confined by low basaltic banks, which, at the foot, 
suddenly close in and make the channel about 30 yards wide. It is here the danger 
lies, as there is a sudden drop and the water rushes through at a tremendous rate, 
leaping and seething like a cataract. The miners have constructed a portage road 
on the west side, and put down rollways in some placss on which to shove their 
boats over. They have also made some windlasses with which to haul their 
boats up hill, notably one at the foot of the canon. This roadway and the wind- 
lasses must have cost them many hours of hard labour. Should it ever be neces- 
sary, a tramway could be built past the canon on the east side with no great 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



27 







28 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

difficulty. With the exception of the Five Finger Rapids these appear to be the 
only serious rapids on the whole length of the river. 

Five Finger Rapids are formed by several islands standing in the channel and 
backing up the water so much as to raise it about a foot, causing a swell below for 
a few yards. The islands are composed of conglomerate rock, similar to the cliffs 
on each side of the river, whence one would infer that there has been a fall here in 
past ages. For about two miles below the rapids there is a pretty swift current, but 
not enough to prevent the ascent of a steamboat of moderate power, and the rapids 
themselves I do not think would present any serious obstacle to the ascent of a 
good boat. Li very high water warping might be required. Six miles below these 
rapids are what are known as "Rink Rapids." This is simply a barrier of rocks, 
which extends from the westerly side of the river about half way across. Over 
this barrier there is a ripple which would offer no great obstacle to the descent of a 
good canoe. On the easterly side there is no ripple, and the current is smooth 
and the water apparently deep. I tried with a 6-foot paddle, but could not reach 
the bottom. 

On the nth of August I met a party of miners coming out who had passed 
Stewart River a few days before. They saw no sign of Dr. Dawson having been 
there. This was welcome news for me, as I expected he would have reached that 
point long before I arrived, on account of the many delays I had met with on the 
coast range. These miners also gave me the pleasant news that the story told at 
the coast about the fight with the Lidians at Stewart River was false, and stated 
substantially what I have already repeated concerning it. The same evening I 
met more miners on their way out, and the next day met three boats, each con- 
taining four men. In the crew of one of them was a son of Capt. Moore, from 
whom the captain got such information as induced him to turn back and accompany 
them out. 

Next day, the 13th, I got to the mouth of the Pelly, and found that Dr. Dawson 
had arrived there on the nth. The doctor also had experienced many delays, and 
had heard the same story of the Indian uprising in the interior. I was pleased to 
find that he was in no immediate want of provisions, the fear of which had caused 
me a great deal of uneasiness on the way down the river, as it was arranged between 
us in Victoria that I was to take with me provisions for his party to do them until 
their return to the coast. The doctor was so much behind the time arranged to 
meet me that he determined to start for the coast at once. I therefore set about 
making a short report and plan of my survey to this point ; and, as I was not likely 
to get another opportunity of writing at such length for a year, I applied myself 
to a correspondence designed to satisfy my friends and acquaintances for the 
ensuing twelve months. This necessitated three days' hard work. 

On the morning of the 17th the doctor left for the outside world, leaving me 
with a feeling of loneliness that only those who have experienced it can realize. I 
remained at the mouth of the Pelly during the next day taking magnetic and 
astronomical observations, and making some measurements of the river. On the 
19th I resumed the survey and reached White River on the 25th. Here I spent 
most of a day trying to ascend this river, but found it impracticable, on account of 
the swift current and shallow and very muddy water. The water is so muddy that 
it is impossible to see through one-eighth of an inch of it. The current is very 
strong, probably eight miles or more per hour, and the numerous bars in the bed are 
constantly changing place. After trying for several hours, the base men succeeded 
in doing about half a mile only, and I came to the conclusion that it was useless to 
try to get up this stream to the boundary with canoes. Had it proved feasible I 
had intended making a survey of this stream to the boundary, to discover more 
especially the facilities it offered for the transport of supplies in the event of a sur- 
vey of the International Boundary being undertaken. 

I reached Stewart River on the 26th. Here I remained a day taking magnetic 
observations, and getting information from a miner, named McDonald, about the 
country up that river. McDonald had spent the summer up the river prospecting 
and exploring. His information will be given in detail further on. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 




30 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

Fort Reliance was reached on the ist of September, and Fortymile River 
(Cone-Hill River of Schwatka) on the yth. In the interval between Fort Reliance 
and Fortymile River there were several days lost by rain. 

At Fortymile River I made some arrangements with the traders there (Messrs. 
Harper & McQuesten) about supplies during the winter, and about getting Indians 
to assist me in crossing from the Yukon to the head of the Porcupine, or perhaps on 
to the Peel River. I then made a survq^y of the Fortymile River up to the canon. 
I found the canon would be difficult of ascent, and dangerous to descend, and, there- 
fore, concluded to defer further operations until the winter, and until after I had 
determined the longitude of my winter post near the boundary, when I would be in a 
much better position to locate the intersection of the International Boundary with 
this river, a point important to determine on account of the number and richness of 
the mining claims on the river. 

I left Fortymile River for the Boundary Line between Alaska and the North- 
west Territories on the 12th September, and finished the survey to that point on the 
14th. I then spent two days in examining the valley of the river in the vicinity of 
the boundary to get the most extensive view of the horizon possible, and to find a 
tree large enough to serve for a transit stand. 

Before leaving Toronto I got Mr. Foster to make large brass plates with V's on 
them, which could be screwed firmly to a stump, and thus be made to serve as a 
transit stand. I required a stump at least 22 inches in diameter to make a base 
large enough for the plates when properly placed for the transit. In a search which 
covered about four miles of the river bank, on both sides, I found only one tree as 
large as 18 inches. I mention this fact to give an idea of the size of the trees along 
the river in this vicinity. I had this stump enlarged by firmly fixing pieces on the 
sides so as to bring it up to the requisite size. This done, I built around the stump 
a small transit house of the ordinary form and then mounted and adjusted my transit. 
Meanwhile, most of the party were busy preparing our winter quarters and building 
a magnetic observatory. As I had been led to expect extremely low temperatures 
during the winter, I adopted precautionary measures, so as to be as comfortable as 
circumstances would permit during our stay there. 



SURVEY OF FORTYMILE RIVER, FROM ITS MOUTH TO THE INTERNATIONAL 

BOUNDARY LINE. 

On the 9th of February I started with the survey from where I had left it in the 
summer, as already mentioned. 

During the progress of this work the weather was cold, and as the days were 
only four or five hours long the progress was necessarily slow, so that I did not com- 
plete the survey to the boundary until the 1 2th. The distance from the mouth of 
the Fortymile River up it to the boundary is, by the river, twenty-three miles. I 
marked the approximate intersection of the river by the boundary by blazing trees 
on both sides and marked on some of the trees the letters " A " and " C " on the west 
and east sides, respectively, for Alaska and Canada. 

The natural features of the ground here afford also a good mark. On the north 
side of the river two small creeks fall into Fortymile River, almost together, and be- 
tween them there is a sharp rocky mound about 150 feet high. This mound stands 
about where the boundary crosses the river, and from this point one can see north- 
wards up the valleys of the creeks for several miles. This is the first place on the 
Fortymile where such a distant view can be had. 

I returned to the post at the mouth of the river, and spent two days with the 
traders Harper and McQuesten and the miners who were camped around. 

Harper, McQuesten & Co. moved from Stewart River down to this point in the 
spring of 1887, so as to be where most of the miners were located. On Fortymile 
River, in the season of 1886, coarse gold was found, the first discovered on the 
Yukon or any of its tributaries. Coarse gold is the desideratum of all gold miners, 
and as soon as the news of the discovery spread to the other mining camps, where 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



31 




32 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD 

nothing but fine or dust gold had yet been found, they all repaired to the coarse gold 
diggings on Fortymile. 

About one hundred miners wintered in the country, most of whom camped at 
Fortymile. A few wintered down at the old trading post built by Francois Mercier 
of Montreal, and named by him Belle Isle. This post is just above where Lieut. 
Schwatka located the International Boundary, but it is about twelve miles below the 
boundary by my survey and observations. 

When I was at Fortymile River the miners were very anxious to see me, and to 
know our mining regulations and laws. I explained everything they inquired about 
as fully as my knowledge and the documents at my disposal would permit. Many 
of them who were used to the United States system of each mining community 
making its own by-laws, based on the general mining law of the country, and elect- 
ing their own recorder to attend to the regulations and see them carried out, thought 
some of our regulations rather stringent and hard. I heard their statements 
and answered such of them as I could, and also promised to lay their views 
before the Department. This I have already done in a report sent by me in the 
spring of 1888. As this report is of purely administrative import, it is not necessary 
to quote it here. 

During the winter there were many cases of sickness at Fortymile, most of them 
scurvy. There were three deaths, only one of which was due to scurvy. 

I returned to my quarters on the 17th February, and immediately set the party 
at work drawing the canoes and instruments, and about four months' provisions, 
down to Belle Isle, about fifteen miles down the river from my house. This was to 
be our starting point for the Mackenzie River. 

DESCRIPTION OF THE YUKON, ITS AFFLUENT STREAMS, AND THE ADJACENT 

COUNTRY. 

I will now give from my own observation and from information received, a 
more detailed description of the Lewes River, its affluent streams, and the resources 
of the adjacent country. 

For the purpose of navigation a description of the Lewes River begins at the 
head of Lake Bennett. Above that point, and between it and Lake Lindeman, 
there is only about three-quarters of a mile of river, which is about fifty yards wide, 
and two or three feet deep, and is so swift and rough generally, that navigation is 
out of the question. 

Lake Lindeman is about five miles long and half a mile wide. It is deep 
enough for all ordinary purposes. Lake Bennett* is twenty-five and a half miles 
long, the upper fourteen of which is about half a mile wide. About midway in its 
length an arm comes in from the west, which Schwatka appears to have mistaken 
for a river, and named Wheaton River. This arm is wider than the other arm down 
to that point, and is reported by Indians to be longer and heading in a glacier which 
lies in the pass at the head of Chilkoot Inlet. This arm is, as far as seen, sur- 
rounded by high mountains, apparently much higher than those on the arm we trav- 
elled down. Below the junction of the two arms the lake is about one and a half 
miles wide, with deep water. Above the forks the water of the east branch is 
muddy. This is caused by the streams from the numerous glaciers on the head of 
the tributaries of Lake Lindeman. 

A stream which flows into Lake Bennett at the south-west corner is also very 
dirty, and has shoaled quite a large portion of the lake at its mouth. The beach at 
the lower end of this lake is comparatively flat and the water shoal. A deep, wide 
valley extends northwards from the north end of the lake, apparently reaching to the 
canon, or a short distance above it. This may have been originally a course for the 
waters of the river. The bottom of the valley is wide and sandy, and covered 



* A small saw-mill has been erected at the head of Lake Bennett ; lumber for boat building sells 
at f 100 per M. Boats 25 feet long and 5 feet beam are $60 each. Last year the ice broke up in the 
lake on the 12th June, but this season is earlier and the boats are expected to go down the lake about 
the 1st of June. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



3a 




34 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

with scrubby timber, principally poplar and pitch-pine. The waters of the lake 
empty at the extreme north-east angle through a channel not more than one 
hundred yards wide, which soon expands into what Schwatka called Nares Lake.* 
Through this narrow channel there is quite a current, and more than seven feet of 
water, as a six-foot paddle and a foot of arm added to its length did not reach the 
bottom. 

The hills at the upper end of Lake Rennet rise abruptly from the water's edge. 
At the lower end they are neither so steep nor so high. 

Nares Lake is only two and a half miles long, and its greatest width is about a 
mile ; it is not deep, but is navigable for boats drawing five or six feet of water ; it is 
separated from Lake Bennett by a shallow sandy point of not more than 200 yards 
in length. 

No streams of any consequence empty into either of these lakes. A small river 
flows into Lake Bennett on the west side, a short distance north of the fork, and 
another at the extreme north-west angle, but neither of them is of any consequence 
in a navigable sense. The former seems to be what Schwatka referred to as 
Wheaton River. 

Nares Lake flows through a narrow curved channel into Tagish Lake. This 
channel is not more than 600 or 700 yards long, and the water in it appears to be 
sufficiently deep for boats that could navigate the lake. The land between the lakes 
along this channel is low, swampy, and covered with willows, and, at the stage in 
which I saw it, did not rise more than three feet above the water. The hills on the 
south-west side slope up easily, and are not high ; on the north side the deep valley 
already referred to borders it ; and on the east side the mountains rise abruptly 
from the lake shore. 

Tagish Lake is about a mile wide for the first two miles of its length, when it is 
joined by what the miners have called the Windy Arm. One of the Tagish Indians 
informed me they called it Takone Lake. Here the lake expands to a width of 
about two miles for a distance of some three miles, when it suddenly narrows to 
about half a mile for a distance of a little over a mile, after which it widens again to 
about a mile and a half or more. 

Ten miles from the head of the lake it is joined by the Taku Arm from the 
south. This arm must be of considerable length, as it can be seen for a long dis- 
tance, and its valley can be traced through the mountains much farther than the 
lake itself can be seen. It is apparently over a mile wide at its mouth or junction. 

Dr. Dawson includes all these arms under the common name of Tagish Lake. 
This is much more simple and comprehensive than the various names given them by 
travellers. These waters collectively are the fishing and hunting grounds of the 
Tagish Indians, and as they are really one body of water, there is no reason why they 
should not be all included under one name. 

From the junction with the Taku Arm, or the easterly arm, to the north end of 
the lake, the distance is about six miles, the greater part being over two miles wide. 
The west side is very flat and shallow, so much so that it was impossible in many 
places to get our canoes to the shore, and quite a distance out in the lake there was 
not more than five feet of water. The members of my party, who were in charge of 
the large boat and outfit, went down the east side of the lake and reported the depth 
about the same as I found on the west side, with many large rocks. They passed 
through it in the night in a rain storm, and were much alarmed for the safety of the 
boat and provisions. It would appear that this part of the lake requires some im- 
provement to make it in keeping with the rest of the water system with which it is 
connected. f 

Where the river debouches from it, it is about 150 yards wide, and for a short 
distance not more than 5 or 6 feet deep. The depth is, however, soon increased to 
10 feet or more, and so continues down to what Schwatka calls Marsh Lake. The 



* The connecting waters between Lake Bennett and Tagish Lake constitute what is now called 
Caribou Crossing. 

t The middle of the lake is deep enough for any craft that can sail the lakes above. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



35 





36 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

miners call it Mud Lake, but on this name they do not appear to be agreed, many of 
them calling the lower part of Tagish Lake " Mud Lake," on account of its shallow- 
ness and flat, muddy shores, as seen along the west side, the side nearly always trav- 
elled, as it is more sheltered from the prevailing southerly winds. The term " Mud 
Lake " is, however, not applicable to this lake, as only a comparatively small part of 
it is shallow or muddy ; and it is nearly as inapplicable to Marsh Lake, as the latter 
is not markedly muddy along the west side, and from the appearance of the east 
shore one would not judge it to be so, as the banks appear to be high and gravelly. 

Marsh Lake is a little over nineteen miles long, and averages about two miles in 
width. I tried to determine the width of it as I went along with my survey, by tak- 
ing azimuths of points on the eastern shore from different stations of the survey ; 
but in only one case did I succeed, as there were no prominent marks on that shore 
which could be identified from more than one place. The piece of river connecting 
Tagish and Marsh Lakes is about five miles long, and averages 150 to 200 yards in 
width, and, as already mentioned, is deep, except for a short distance at the head. 
On it are situated the only Indian houses to be found in the interior with any preten- 
sion to skill in construction. They show much more labour and imitativeness than 
one knowing anything about the Indian in his native state would expect. The plan 
is evidently taken from the Indian houses on the coast, which appear to me to be a 
poor copy of the houses which the Hudson Bay Company's servants build around 
their trading posts. These houses do not appear to have been used for some time 
past, and are almost in ruins. The Tagish Indians are now generally on the coast, 
as they find it much easier to live there than in their own country. As a matter of 
fact, what they make in their own country is taken from them by the Coast Indians, 
so that there is little inducement for them to remain. 

The Lewes River, where it leaves Marsh Lake, is about 200 yards wide, and 
averages this width as far as the canon. I did not try to find bottom anywhere as I 
went along, except where I had reason to think it shallow, and there I always tried 
with my paddle. I did not anywhere find bottom with this, which shows that there 
is no part of this stretch of the river with less than six feet of water at medium 
height, at which stage it appeared to me the river was at that time. 

From the head of Lake Bennett to the canon the corrected distance is ninety- 
five miles, all of which is navigable for boats drawing five feet or more. Add to this 
the westerly arm of Lake Bennett, and the Windy Arm of Tagish Lake, each about 
fifteen miles in length, and the easterly arm of the latter lake, of unknown length, 
but probably not less than thirty miles, and we have a stretch of water of upwards 
of one hundred miles in length, all easily navigable ; and, as has been pointed out, 
easily connected with Dyea Inlet through the White Pass. 

No streams of any importance enter any of these lakes so far as I know. A 
river, called by Schwatka " McClintock River," enters Marsh Lake at the lower end 
from the east. It occupies a large valley, as seen from the westerly side of the 
lake, but the stream is apparently unimportant. Another small stream, apparently 
only a creek, enters the south-east angle of the lake. It is not probable that any 
stream coming from the east side of the lake is of importance, as the strip of country 
between the Lewes and Teslin is not more than thirty or forty miles in width at this 
point. 

The easterly arm of Tagish Lake is, so far, with the exception of reports from 
Indians, unknown ; but it is equally improbable that any river of importance enters 
it, as it is so near the source of the waters flowing northwards. However, this is a 
question that can only be decided by a proper exploration. The canon I have 
already described, and will only add that it is five-eighths of a mile long, about 100 
feet wide, with perpendicular banks of basaltic rock from 60 to 100 feet high. 

Below the canon proper there is a stretch of rapids for about a mile ; then about 
half a mile of smooth water, following which are the White Horse Rapids, which are 
three-eighths of a mile long, and unsafe for boats. 

The total fall in the canon and succeeding rapids was measured and found to 
be 32 feet. Were it ever necessary to make this part of the river navigable, it will 
be no easy task to overcome the obstacles at this point ; but a tram or railway 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



37 




From Photo, by J. J. McA rthur. 
Dalton's Pack Train at Dalton's Post — Looking: South. 



could, with very little difficulty, be constructed along the east side of the river past 
them. 

For some distance below the White Horse Rapids the current is swift and the 
river wide, with many gravel bars. The reach between these rapids and Lake 
Labarge, a distance of twenty-seven and a half miles, is all smooth water, with a 
strong current. The average width is about 150 yards. There is no impediment to 
navigation other than the swift current, and this is no stronger than on the lower 
part of the river, which is already navigated ; nor is it worse than on the Saskatche- 
wan and Red Rivers in the more eastern part of our territory. 

About midway in this stretch the Takhini River* joins the Lewes. This river 
is, apparently, about half the size of the latter. Its waters are muddy, indicating 
its passage through a clayey district. I got some indefinite information about this 
river from an Indian who happened to meet me just below its mouth, but I could 
not readily make him understand me, and his replies were a compound of Chinook, 
Tagish and signs, and therefore largely unintelligible. From what I could under- 
stand with any certainty, the river was easy to descend, there being no bad rapids, 
and it came out of a lake much larger than any I had yet passed. 

Here I may remark that I have invariably found it difficult to get reliable or 
definite information from Indians. The reasons for this are many. Most of those it 
has been my lot to meet are expecting to make something, and consequently are 
very chary about doing or saying anything unless they think they will be well 
rewarded for it. They are naturally very suspicious of strangers, and it takes some 
time, and some knowledge of their language, to overcome this suspicion and gain 
their confidence. If you begin at once to ask questions about their country, without 



* The Takhini was formerly much used by the Chilkat Indians as a means of reaching the interior, 
but never by the miners, owing to the distance from the sea to its head. 



S8 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

previously having them understand that you have no unfriendly motive in doing 
so, they become alarmed, and although you may not meet with a positive refusal to 
answer questions, you make very little progress in getting desired information. On 
the other hand, I have met cases where, either through fear or hope of reward, they 
were only too anxious to impart all they knew or had heard, and even more if they 
thought it would please their hearer. I need hardly say that such information is 
often not at all in accordance with the facts. 

I have several times found that some act of mine when in their presence has 
aroused either their fear, superstition or cupidity. As an instance : on the Bell 
River I met some Lidians coming down stream as I was going up. We were ashore 
at the time, and invited them to join us. They started to come in, but very slowly, 
and all the time kept a watchful eye on us. I noticed that my double-barrelled 
shot gun was lying at my feet, loaded, and picked it up to unload it, as I knew they 
would be handling it after landing. This alarmed them so much that it was some 
time before they came in, and I don't think they would have come ashore at all had 
they not heard that a party of white men, of whom we answered the description, were 
coming through that way (they had learned this from the Hudson Bay Company's 
officers), and concluded we were the party described to them. After drinking some 
of our tea, and getting a supply for themselves, they became quite friendly and 
communicative. 

Again, on the Mackenzie River, while two Indians were coming ashore at my 
camp, I picked up a telescope to look for a signal across the river. In looking for 
it I had to point it towards the Indians, who immediately turned and fled. Next 
day I called at the Indian encampment and explained through my interpreter what 
I had really done. When they understood it, it caused the camp much amusement. 

At Fort Good Hope, on the Mackenzie, I heard of an old Indian who had been 
a great deal on the Hare Indian River and could give valuable information regard- 
ing it. I asked to have him brought in, that I might question him. In the mean- 
time I set about getting an observation for azimuth, and was busy observing when 
he came. The interpreter asked me what I was doing ; I told him. He asked 
what I was looking up so much for ; I said I was looking at a star. As the time 
was early in the evening, and the sun well up in the sky, he at first doubted my 
statement, but, finally believing, he explained to the Indians around what I was 
doing, and pointed out to them where the star was. They looked up in an awed 
manner, and walked off. When I finished my observation and inquired for the old 
man, I was told that he was not inclined to see me. I found him, but he refused 
to answer any questions, saying that there was no use in telling me anything, for 
when I could see stars during daylight I could just as easily see all the river, and 
nothing could convince him to the contrary. 

I cite these as instances of what one meets with who comes in contact with 
Indians, and of how trifles affect them. A sojourn of two or three days with them 
and the assistance of a common friend would do much to disabuse them of such 
ideas, but when you have no such aids you must not expect to make much progress. 

Lake Labarge is thirty-one miles long. In the upper thirteen it varies from 
three to four miles in width ; it then narrows to about two miles for a distance of 
seven miles, when it begins to widen again, and gradually expands to about two 
and a-half or three miles, the lower six miles of it maintaining the latter width. 
The survey was carried along the western shore, and while so engaged I deter- 
mined the width of the upper wide part by triangulation at two points, the width 
of the narrow middle part at three points, and the width of the lower part at three 
points. Dr. Dawson on his way out made a track survey of the eastern shore. 
The western shore is irregular in many places, being indented by large bays, especi- 
ally at the upper and lower ends. These bays are, as a rule, shallow, more especi- 
ally those at the lower end. 

Just above where the lake narrows m the middle there is a large island. It is 
three and a-half miles long and about half a mile in width. It is shown on 
Schwatka's map as a penmsula, and called by him Richtofen Rocks. How he 
came to think it a peninsula I cannot understand, as it is well out in the lake ; the 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



39 



nearest point of it to the western shore is upwards of half a mile distant, and the 
extreme width of the lake here is not more than five miles, which includes the 
depth of the deepest bays on the western side. It is therefore difficult to under- 
stand that he did not see it as an island. The upper half of this island is gravelly, 
and does not rise very high above the lake. The lower end is rocky and high, the 
rock being of a bright red colour. 

At the lower end of the lake there is a large valley extending northwards, which 
has evidently at one time been the outlet of the lake. Dr. Dawson has noted it and 
its peculiarities. His remarks regarding it will be found on pages 156-160 of his 
report entitled "Yukon District and Northern portion of British Columbia," pub- 
lished in 1889. 

The width of the Lewes River as it leaves the Lake is the same as at its en- 
trance, about 200 yards. Its waters when I was there were murky. This is caused 
by the action of the waves on the shore along the lower end of the lake. The water 
at the upper end and at the middle of the lake is quite clear, so much so that the 
bottom can be distinctly seen at a depth of 6 or 7 feet. The wind blows almost 
constantly down this lake, and in a high wind it gets very rough. The miners com- 
plain of much detention owing to this cause, and certainly I cannot complain of a 
lack of wind while I was on the lake. This lake was named after one Mike Labarge, 
a Canadian from the vicinity of Montreal, who was engaged by the Western Union 
Telegraph Company, exploring the river and adjacent country for the purpose of 
connecting Europe and America by telegraph through British Columbia, and Alaska, 
and across Bering Strait to Asia, and thence to Europe. This exploration took place 
in 1867, but it does not appear that Labarge then, nor for some years after, saw the 
lake called by his name. The successful laying of the Atlantic cable in 1866 put 
a stop to this project, and the exploring parties sent out were recalled as soon as 
word could be got to them. J It seems that Labarge had got up as far as the Pelly 
before he received his recall ; he had heard something of a large lake some distance 




From Photo, by J. J. Mc Arthur. 
Looking North.— Summit of White Pass to the Left of Centre. 



40 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

further up the river, and afterwards spoke of it to some traders and miners who 
called it after him. 

After leaving Lake Labarge the river, for a distance of about five miles, pre- 
serves a generally uniform width and an easy current of about four miles per hour. 
It then makes a short turn round a low gravel point, and flows in exactly the 
opposite of its general course for a mile, when it again turns sharply to its general 
direction. The current around this curve and for some distance below it — in all 
four or five miles — is very swift. I timed it in several places and found it from six 
to seven miles an hour. It then moderates to four or five, but is generally swift to 
the Teslin River, thirty-one and seven-tenths miles from Lake Labarge. The aver- 
age width of this part of the river is about 150 yards, and the depth is sufficient to 
afford passage for boats drawing at least 5 feet. It is, as a rule, crooked, and con- 
sequently a little difficult to navigate. 

The Teslin* was so called by Dr. Dawson — this, according to information 
obtained by him, being the Indian name. It is called by the miners " Hootalinkwa " 
or Hootalinqua, and was called by Schwatka, who appears to have bestowed no 
other attention to it, the Newberry, although it is apparently much larger than the 
Lewes. This was so apparent that in my interim reports I stated it as a fact. 
Owing to circumstances already narrated, I had not time while at the mouth to make 
any measurement to determine the relative size of the rivers ; but on his way out 
Dr. Dawson made these measurements, and his report, before referred to, gives the 
following values of the cross sections of each stream : Lewes, 3,015 feet ; Teslin, 
3,809 feet. In the same connection he states that the Lewes appeared to be about 
I foot above its lowest summer level, while the Teslin appeared to be at its lowest 
level. Assuming this to be so, and taking his widths as our data, it would reduce 
his cross section of the Lewes to 2,595 feet. Owing, however, to the current in the 
Lewes, as determined by Dr. Dawson, being just double that of the Teslin, the 
figures being 5.68 and 2.88 miles per hour, respectively, the discharge of the Lewes, 
taking these figures again, is 18,644 feet, and of the Teslin 11,436 feet. To reduce 
the Lewes to its lowest level the doctor says would make its discharge 15,600 feet. 

The water of the Teslin is of a dark brown colour, similar in appearance to the 
Ottawa River water, and a little turbid. Notwithstanding the difference of volume 
of discharge, the Teslin changes completely the character of the river below the 
junction, and a person coming up the river would, at the forks, unhesitatingly pro- 
nounce the Teslin the main stream. The water of the Lewes is blue in colour, and 
at the time I speak of was somewhat dirty — not enough so, however, to prevent one 
seeing to a depth of two or three feet. 

Many years ago, sixteen I think, a man named Monroe prospected up the Taku 
and learned from the Indians something of a large lake not far from that river. He 
crossed over and found it, and spent some time in prospecting, and then recrossed 
to the sea. This man had been at Fortymile River, and I heard from the miners 
there his account of the appearance of the lake, which was not detailed enough to 
be of service. 

Assuming this as the main river, and adding its length to the Lewes- Yukon be- 
low the junction, gives upwards of 2,200 miles of river, fully two-thirds of which runs 
through a very mountainous country, without an impediment to navigation. It is 
reported to be better timbered than the Lewes. 

Some indefinite information was obtained as to the position of this river in the 
neighbourhood of Marsh Lake tending to show that the distance between them was 
only about thirty or forty miles. 

* The limited amount of prospecting that has been done on this river is said to be very satisfactory, 
fine gold having been found in all parts of the river. The lack of supplies is the great drawback to its 
development, and this will not be overcome to any extent until by some means heavy freight can be 
brought over the coast range to the head of the river. Indeed, owing to the difficulties attending access 
and transportation, the great drawback to the entire Yukon District at present is the want of heavy 
mining machinery and the scarcity of supplies. The Government being aware of the requirements and 
possibilities of the country, has undertaken the task of making preliminary surveys for trails and rail- 
roads, and no doubt in the near future the avenue for better and quicker transportation facilities will be 
opened up. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



41 



Between the Teslin and the Big Salmon, so called by the miners, or D'Abbadie 
by Schwatka, the distance is thirty-three and a-half miles, in which the Lewes pre- 
serves a generally uniform width and current. For a few miles below the Teslin it 
is a little over the ordinary width, but then contracts to about two hundred yards, 
which it maintains with little variation. The current is generally from four to five 
miles per hour. 

The Big Salmon I found to be about one hundred yards wide near the mouth, 
the depth not more than four or five feet, and the current, so far as could be seen, 
sluggish. None of the miners I met could give me any information concerning 
this stream ; but Dr. Dawson was more fortunate, and met a man who had spent 
most of the summer of 1887 prospecting on it. His opinion was that it might be 
navigable for small stern-wheel steamers for many miles.* The valley, as seen 
from the mouth, is wide, and gives one the impression of being occupied by a much 
more important stream. Looking up it, in the distance could be seen many high 




Eagle's Nest. 



From Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 



peaks covered with snow. As the date was August it is likely they are always so 
covered, which would make their probable altitude above the river 5,000 feet or 
more. 

Dr. Dawson, in his report, incorporates fully the notes obtained from the miners. 
I will trespass so far on these as to say that they called the distance to a small lake 
near the head of the river 190 miles from the mouth. This lake was estimated to be 
four miles in length ; another lake about 12 miles above this was estimated to be 
twenty-four miles long, and its upper end distant only about eight miles from the 
Teslin. These distances, if correct, make this river much more important than a 
casual glance at it would indicate ; this, however, will be more fully spoken of 
under its proper head. 

*My examination of the mouth of this stream in 1895 leads me to believe this opinion is 
erroneous. — W. O. 



42 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

Just below the Big Salmon, the Lewes takes a bend of nearly a right angle. 
Its course from the junction with the Takhjni to this point is generally a little east 
of north ; at this point it turns to nearly west for some distance. Its course between 
here and its confluence with the Pelly is north-west, and, I may add, it preserves 
this general direction down to the confluence with the Porcupine. The river also 
changes in another respect; it is generally wider, and often expands into what 
might be called lakes, in which are islands. Some of these lakes are of considerable 
length, and well timbered. 

To determine which channel is the main one, that is, which carries the greatest 
volume of water, or is best available for the purposes of navigation, among these 
islands, would require more time than I could devote to it on my way down ; con- 
sequently I cannot say more than that I have no reason to doubt that a channel 
giving six feet or more of water could easily be found. Whenever, in the maia 
channel, I had reason to think the water shallow, I tried it with my paddle, but 
always failed to find bottom, which gives upwards of six feet. Of course I oftea 
found less than this, but not in what I considered the main channel. 

Thirty-six and a quarter miles below the Big Salmon, the Little Salmon — the 
Daly of Schwatka — enters the Lewes. The river is about 60 yards wide at the 
mouth, and not more than two or three feet in depth. The water is clear and of a. 
brownish hue ; there is not much current at the mouth, nor as far as can be seen 
up the stream. The valley which, from the mouth, does not appear extensive, bears 
north-east for some distance, when it appears to turn more to the east. Six or seven 
miles up, and apparently on the north side, some high cliffs of red rock, apparently 
granite, can be seen. It is said that some miners have prospected this stream, but I 
could learn nothing definite about it. 

Lewes River makes a turn here to the south-west, and runs in that direction 
six miles, when it again turns to the north-west for seven miles, and then makes a 
short, sharp turn to the south and west around a low sandy point, which will, at 
some day in the near future, be cut through by the current, which will shorten the 
river three or four miles. 

Eight miles below Little Salmon River, a large rock called the Eagle's Nest 
Rock, stands up in a gravel slope on the easterly bank of the river. It rises about 
five hundred feet above the river, and is composed of a light grey stone. What the 
character of this rock is I could not observe, as I saw it only from the river, which 
is about a quarter of a mile distant. On the westerly side of the river there are 
two or three other isolated masses of apparently the same kind of rock. One of 
them might appropriately be called a mountain ; it is south-west from the Eagle's 
Nest and distant from it about three miles. 

Thirty-two miles below Eagle's Nest Rock, Nordenskiold River enters from 
the west. It is an unimportant stream, being not more than one hundred and 
twenty feet wide at the mouth, and only a few inches deep. The valley, as far as 
can be seen, is not extensive, and being very crooked, it is hard to tell what its 
general direction is. 

The Lewes, between the Little Salmon and the Nordenskiold, maintains a width 
of from two to three hundred yards, with an occasional expansion where there are 
islands. It is serpentine in its course most of the way, and where the Nordenskiold 
joins it is very crooked, running several times under a hill, named by Schwatka 
Tantalus Butte, and in other places leaving it, for a distance of eight miles. The 
distance across from point to point is only half a mile. 

Below this to Five Finger Rapids, so-called from the fact that five large 
masses of rock stand in mid-channel, the river assumes its ordinary straightness and 
width, with a current from four to five miles per hour. I have already described 
Five Finger Rapids ; I do not think they will prove anything more than a slight 
obstruction in the navigation of the river. A boat of ordinary power would probably 
have to help herself up with windlass and line in high water. 

Below the rapids, for about two miles, the current is strong — probably six miles 
per hour — but the water seems to be deep enough for any boat that is likely to 
navigate it. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



43 




44 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

Six miles below this, as already noticed, Rink Rapids are situated. They are 
of no great importance, the westerly half of the stream only being obstructed. 
The easterly half is not in any way affected, the current being smooth and the 
water deep. 

Below Five Finger Rapids about two miles a small stream enters from the east. 
It is called by Dr. Dawson Tatshun River. It is not more than 30 or 40 feet wide 
at the mouth, and contains only a little clear, brownish water. Here I met the only 
Indians seen on the river between Teslin and Stewart Rivers. They were engaged 
in catching salmon at the mouth of the Tatshun, and were the poorest and most 
unintelligent Indians it has ever been my lot to meet. It is needless to say that none 
of our party understood anything they said, as they could not speak a word of any 
language but their own. I tried by signs to get some information from them about 
the stream they were fishing in, but failed. I tried, in the same way to learn if there 
were any more Indians in the vicinity, but again utterly failed. I then tried by signs 
to find out how many days it took to go down to Pelly River, but although I have 
never known these signs to fail in eliciting information in any other part of the terri- 
tory, they did not understand. They appeared to be alarmed by our presence ; and, 
as we had not yet been assured as to the rumour concerning the trouble between the 
miners and Indians, we felt a little apprehensive, but being able to learn nothing 
from them we had to put our fears aside and proceed blindly. 

Between Five Finger Rapids and Pelly River, fifty-eight and a half miles, no 
streams of any importance enter the Lewes ; in fact, with the exception of the Tat- 
shun, it may be said that none at all enter. 

About a mile below Rink Rapids the river spreads out into a lake-like expanse, 
with many islands ; this continues for about three miles, when it contracts to some- 
thing Hke the usual width ; but bars and small islands are very numerous all the way 
to Pelly River, About five miles above Pelly River there is another lake-like 
expanse filled with islands. The river here for three or four miles is nearly a mile 
wide, and so numerous and close are the islands that it is impossible to tell when 
floating among them where the shores of the river are.' The current, too, is swift, 
leading one to suppose the water shallow ; but I think even here a channel deep 
enough for such boats as will navigate this part of the river can be found. Schwatka 
named this group of islands " Ingersoll Islands." 

At the mouth of the Pelly the Lewes is about half a mile wide, and here too 
there are many islands, but not in groups as at Ingersoll Islands. 

About a mile below the Pelly, just at the ruins of Fort Selkirk, the Yukon was 
found to be 565 yards wide ; about two-thirds being ten feet deep, with a current 
of about four and three-quarter miles per hour ; the remaining third was more 
than half taken up by a bar, and the current between it and the south shore was 
very slack. 

Pelly River at its mouth is about two hundred yards wide, and continues this 
width as far up as could be seen. Dr. Dawson made a survey and examination of 
this river, which will be found in his report already cited, "Yukon District and 
Northern British Columbia." 

Just here for a short distance the course of the Yukon is nearly west, and on 
the south side, about a mile below the mouth of the Lewes, stands all that remains 
of the only trading post ever built by white men in the district.* This post was 
established by Robert Campbell, for the Hudson Bay Company, in the summer of 
1848. It was first built on the point of land between the two rivers, but this loca- 
tion proving untenable on account of flooding by ice jams in the spring, it was, in 
the season of 1852, moved across the river to where the ruins now stand. It appears 
that the houses composing the post were not finished when the Indians from the 
coast on Chilkat and Chilkoot Inlets came down the river to put a stop to the com- 
petitive trade which Mr. Campbell had inaugurated, and which they found to 
seriously interfere with their profits. Their method of trade appears to have been 
then pretty much as it is now — very one-sided. What they found it convenient to 



* Knocked down by the Indians in 1894, 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



45 




46 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

take by force they took, and what it was convenient to pay for at their own price 
they paid for. 

Mr. Campbell's first visit to the site of Fort Selkirk was made in 1840, under 
instructions from Sir George Simpson, then Governor of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany. He crossed from the head waters of the Liard to the waters of the Pelly. 
It appears the Pelly, where he struck it, was a stream of considerable size, for he 
speaks of its appearance when he first saw it from " Pelly Banks," the name given 
the bank from which he first beheld it, as a "splendid river in the distance." In 
June, 1843, he descended the Pelly to its confluence with the larger stream, which 
he named the "Lewes." Here he found many families of the native Indians — 
" Wood Indians," he called them. These people conveyed to him, as best they 
could by word and sign, the dangers that would attend a further descent of the river, 
representing that the country below theirs was inhabited by a tribe of fierce canni- 
bals, who would assuredly kill and eat them. This so terrified his men that he had 
to return by the way he came, pursued, as he afterwards learned, by the Indians, 
who would have murdered himself and party had they got a favourable opportunity. 
It was not until 1850 that he could establish, what he says he all along believed, 
"that the Pelly and Yukon were identical." This he did by descending the river to 
where the Porcupine joins it, and where in 1847 Fort Yukon was established by Mr. 
A. H. Murray for the Hudson Bay Company. Mr. Campbell then named the river 
he had discovered and explored from the height of land to the junction with the 
Porcupine, " Pelly River," and had it delineated and so named on a map of that 
part of the country, drawn by J. Arrowsmith, the geographer for the Hudson's Bay 
Company, in 1853. 

With reference to the tales told him by the Indians of bad people outside of 
their country, I may say that Mackenzie tells pretty much the same story of the In- 
dians on the Mackenzie when he discovered and explored the river in 1789. He had 
the advantage of having Indians along with him whose language was radically the 
same as that of the people he was coming among, and his statements are more ex- 
plicit and detailed. Everywhere he came in contact with them they manifested, first, 
dread of himself and party, and when friendship and confidence were established 
they nearly always tried to detain him by representing the people in the direction he 
was going as unnaturally bloodthirsty and cruel, sometimes asserting the existence 
of monsters with supernatural powers, as at Manitou Island, a few miles below 
the present Fort Good Hope, and the people on a very large river far to the west 
of the Mackenzie, probably the Yukon, they described to him as monsters in size, 
power and cruelty. 

In our own time, after the intercourse that there has been between them and 
the whites, more than a suspicion of such unknown, cruel people lurks in the minds 
of many of the Indians. It would be futile for me to try to ascribe an origin for 
these fears, my knowledge of their language and idiosyncrasies being so limited. 

Nothing more was ever done in the vicinity of Fort Selkirk* by the Hudson 
Bay -Company after these events,^ and in 1869 the Company was ordered by Capt. 
Charles W. Raymond, who represented the United States Government, to evacuate 
the post at Fort Yukon, he having found that it was west of the 141st meridian. 
The post was occupied by the Company, however, for some time after the receipt of 
this order, and until Rampart House was built, v.'hich was intended to be on British 
Territory, and to take the trade previously done at Fort Yukon. 

Under present conditions the Company cannot very well compete with the 
Alaska Commercial Company, whose agents do the only trade in the district, f and 
they appear to have abandoned — for the present at least — all attempt to do any 
trade nearer to it than Rampart House, to which point, notwithstanding the distance 

* This is now a winter port for steamboats of the North American Transportation and Trading 
Company, plying the Yukon and its tributaries. There is also a trading post here owned by Harper, 
who was at one time of the firm of Harper & McQuesten, traders. 

t Since the date of this report the North American Transportation and Trading Company, better 
known in the Yukon Valley as " Captain Healy's Company," has established a number of posts on 
the river. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



47 




48 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

and difficulties in the way, many of the Indians on the Yukon make a trip every two 
or three years to procure goods in exchange for their furs. The clothing and 
blankets brought in by the Hudson Bay Company they claim are much better than 
those traded on their own river by the Americans. Those of them that I saw who 
had any English blankets exhibited them with pride, and exclaimed " good." They 
point to an American blanket in contempt, with the remark " no good," and speak of 
their clothing in the same way. 

On many maps of Alaska a place named " Reid's House " is shown on or near 
the upper waters of Stewart River. I made enquiries of all whom I thought likely 
to know anything concerning this post, but failed to elicit any information showing 
that there ever had been such a place. I enquired of Mr. Reid, who was in the 
Company's service with Mr. Campbell at Fort Selkirk, and after whom I thought, 
possibly, the place had been called, but he told me he knew of no such post, but 
that there was'a small lake at some distance in a northerly direction from Fort Selkirk, 
where fish were procured. A sort of shelter had been made at that point for the 
fishermen, and a few furs might have been obtained there, but it was never regarded 
as a trading post. 

Below Fort Selkirk, the Yukon River is from five to six hundred yards broad, 
and maintains this width down to White River, a distance of ninety-six miles. 
Islands are numerous, so much so that there are very few parts of the river where 
there are not one or more in sight. Many of them are of considerable size, and 
nearly all are well timbered. Bars are also numerous, but almost all are composed 
of gravel, so that navigators will not have to complain of shifting sand-bars. The 
current, as a general thing, is not so rapid as in the upper part of the river, averag- 
ing about four miles per hour. The depth in the main channel was always found to 
be more than six feet. 

From Pelly River to within twelve miles of White River the general course of 
the river is a little north of west ; it then turns to the north, and the general course 
as far as the site of Fort Reliance is due north. 

White River enters the main river from the west. At the mouth it is about 
two hundred yards wide, but a great part of it is filled with ever-shifting sand-bars, 
the main volume of water being confined to a channel not more than one hundred 
yards in width. The current is very strong, certainly not less than eight miles per 
hour. The colour of the water bears witness to this, as it is much the muddiest that 
I have ever seen.* 

Mr. Harper, of the firm of Harper, McQuesten & Co., went up this river with 
sleds in the fall of 1872, a distance of fifty or sixty miles. He describes it as pos- 
sessing the same general features all the way up, with much clay soil along its banks. 
Its general course, as sketched by him on a map of mine, is for a distance of about 
thirty miles a little north-west, thence south-west thirty or thirt}^-five miles, when it 
deflects to the north-west running along the base of a high mountain ridge. If the 
courses given are correct it must rise somewhere near the head of Fortymile River ; 
and if so, its length is not at all in keeping with the volume of its discharge, when 
compared with the known length and discharge of other rivers in the territory. Mr. 
Harper mentioned an extensive flat south of the mountain range spoken of, across 
which many high mountain peaks could be seen. One of these he thought must be 
Mount St. Elias, as it overtopped all the others ; but, as Mount St. Elias is about 
one hundred and eighty miles distant, his conclusion is not tenable. From his 
description of this mountain it must be more than twice the height of the highest 
peaks seen anywhere on the lower river, and consequently must be ten or twelve 
thousand feet above the sea. He stated that the current in the river was very swift, 
as far as he ascended, and the water muddy. The water from this river, though 
probably not a fourth of the volume of the Yukon, discolours the water of the latter 

* The White River very probably flows over volcanic deposits as its sediments vi^ould indicate ; no 
doubt this would account for the discolouration of its waters. The volcanic ash appears to cover 
a great extent of the Upper Yukon basin drained by the Lewes and Pelly Rivers. Very full treatment 
of the subject is given by Dr. Dawson, in his report entitled " Yukon District and Northern portion of 
British Columbia." 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



49 




50 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

completely ; and a couple of miles below the junction the whole river appears almost 
as dirty as White River. 

Between White and Stewart Rivers, ten miles, the river spreads out to a mile 
and upwards in width, and is a maze of islands and bars. The survey was carried 
down the easterly shore, and many of the channels passed through barely afforded 
water enough to float the canoes. The main channel is along the westerly shore, 
down which the large boat went, and the crew reported plenty of water. 

Stewart River enters from the east in the middle of a wide valley, with low 
hills on both sides, rising on the north side in steps or terraces to distant hills of 
considerable height. The river half a mile or so above the mouth is two hundred 
yards in width. The current is slack and the water shallow and clear, but dark 
coloured. 

While at the mouth I was fortunate enough to meet a miner who had spent the 
whole of the summer of 1887 on the river and its branches prospecting and explor- 
ing. He gave me a good deal of information of which I give a summary. He is a 
native of New Brunswick, Alexander McDonald by name, and has spent some years 
mining in other places, but was very reticent about what he had made or found. 
Fifty or sixty miles up the Stewart a large creek enters from the south which he 
called Rosebud Creek, and thirty or forty miles further up a considerable stream 
flows from the north-east, which appears to be Beaver River, as marked on the maps 
of that part of the country. From the head of this stream he floated down on a raft, 
taking five days to do so. He estimated his progress at forty or fifty miles each 
day, which gives a length of from two hundred to two hundred and fifty miles. This 
is probably an over estimate, unless the stream is very crooked, which, he stated, 
was not the case. As much of his time would be taken up in prospecting, I should 
call thirty miles or less a closer estimate of his progress. This river is from fifty to 
eighty yards wide, and was never more than four or five feet deep, often being not 
more than two or three ; the current, he said, was not at all swift. Above the mouth 
of this stream the main river is from one hundred to one hundred and thirty yards 
wide, with an even current and clear water. Sixty or seventy miles above the last 
mentioned branch another large branch joins, which is possibly the main river. At 
the head of it he found a lake nearly thirty miles long, and averaging a mile and a 
half in width, which he called Mayo Lake, after one of the partners in the firm of 
Harper, McQuesten & Co. He explored the lake and the head of the river, but did 
not see the river again until he reached the lower part near its mouth. 

Thirty miles or so above the forks on the other branch there are falls, which 
McDonald estimated to be between one and two hundred feet in height. I met sev- 
eral parties who had seen these falls, and they corroborate this estimate of their 
height. McDonald went on past the falls to the head of this branch and found ter- 
raced gravel hills to the west and north ; he crossed them to the north and found a 
river flowing northward. On this he embarked on a raft and floated down it for a 
day or two, thinking it would turn to the west and join the Stewart, but finding it 
still continuing north, and acquiring too much volume to be any of the branches 
he had seen while passing up the Stewart, he returned to the point of his departure, 
and after prospecting among the hills around the head of the river, he started 
westward, crossing a high range of mountains composed principally of shales 
with many thin seams of what he called quartz, ranging from one to six inches in 
thickness. 

On the west side of this range he found a river flowing out of what he called 
Mayo Lake, and crossing this got to the head of Beaver River, which he descended 
as before mentioned. 

It is probable the river flowing northwards, on which he made a journey and 
returned, was a branch of Peel River. He described the timber on the gravel ter- 
races of the watershed as small and open. He was alone in this unknown wilder- 
ness all summer, not seeing even any of the natives. There are few men so consti- 
tuted as to be capable of isolating themselves in such a manner. Judging from all I 
could learn it is probable a light- draught steamboat could navigate nearly all of 
Stewart River and its tributaries. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 




52 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

From Stewart River to the site of Fort Reliance,* seventy-three and a quarter 
miles, the Yukon is broad and full of islands. The average width is between a half 
and three-quarters of a mile, but there are many expansions where it is over a mile 
in breadth ; however, in these places it cannot be said that the waterway is wider 
than at other parts of the river, the islands being so large and numerous. In this 
reach no streams of any importance enter. 

About thirteen miles below Stewart River a large valley joins that of the river, 
but the stream occupying it is only a large creek. This agrees in position with what 
has been called Sixtymile River, which was supposed to be about that distance above 
Fort Reliance, but it does not agree with descriptions which I received of it ; more- 
over, as Sixtymile River is known to be a stream of considerable length, this creek 
would not answer its description. 

Twenty-two and a half miles from Stewart River another and larger creek 
enters from the same side ; it agrees with the descriptions of Sixtymile River, and I 
have so marked it on my map. This stream is of no importance, except for what 
mineral wealth may be found on it.f 

Six and a half miles above Fort Reliance the Klondike^ River of the Indians 
(Deer River of Schwatka) enters from the east. It is a small river about one 
hundred yards wide at the mouth, and shallow ; the water is clear and transparent, 
and of beautiful blue colour. The Indians catch numbers of salmon here. They 
had been fishing shortly before my arrival, and the river, for some distance up, was 
full of salmon traps. 

A miner had prospected up this river for an estimated distance of forty miles, in 
the season of 1887. I did not see him, but got some of his information at second 
hand. The water being so beautifully clear I thought it must come through a large 
lake not far up ; but as far as he had gone no lakes were seen. He said the current 
was comparatively slack, with an occasional "ripple" or small rapid. Where he 
turned back the river is surrounded by high mountains, which were then covered with 
snow, which accounts for the purity and clearness of the water. 

It appears that the Indians go up this stream a long distance to hunt, but I could 
learn nothing definite as to their statements concerning it. 

Twelve and a half miles below Fort Reliance, the Chandindu River, as named 
by Schwatka, enters from the east. It is thirty to forty yards wide at the mouth, 
very shallow, and for half a mile up is one continuous rapid. Its valley is wide and 
can be seen for a long distance looking north-eastward from the mouth. 

Between Fort Reliance and Fortymile River (called Cone Hill River by 
Schwatka) the Yukon assumes its normal appearance, having fewer islands and 
being narrower, averaging four to six hundred yards wide, and the current being 
more regular. This stretch is forty-six miles long, but was estimated by the traders 
at forty, from which the Fortymile River took its name. 



* This was at one time a trading post occupied by Messrs. Harper & McQuesten. 

t Sixtymile River is about one hundred miles long, very crooked, with a swift current and many 
rapids, and is therefore not easy to ascend. 

Miller, Glacier, Gold, Little Gold and Bedrock Creeks are all tributaries of Sixtymile. Some of 
the richest discoveries in gold so far made in the interior since 1894 have been upon these creeks; 
especially has this been the case upon the two first mentioned. 

Freight for the mines is taken up Fortymile River in summer for a distance of 26 miles, then port- 
aged across to the heads of Miller and Glacier Creeks. In the winter it is hauled in by dogs. 

The trip from Cudahy or Fortymile to the post at the mouth of Sixtymile River is made by ascend- 
ing Fortymile River some distance, making a short portage to Sixtymile River and running down with 
its swift current. Coming back on the Yukon, nearly the whole of the round trip is made down stream. 

Indian Creek enters the Yukon from the east about 17 miles below Sixtymile. It is reported to be 
rich in gold, but owing to the scarcity of supplies its development has been retarded. 

Messrs. Harper & Co. have a trading post and a saw-mill on an island at the mouth of the creek, 
both of which are in charge of Mr. J. Ladue, one of the partners of the firm, and who was at one time 
in the employ of the Alaska Commercial Company. ' 

t Dawson City is situated at the mouth of the Klondike, and although it was located only a few 
months ago it is the scene of great activity. Very rich deposits of gold have been lately found on 
Bonanza Creek and other affluents of the Klondike. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



53 




Junction of the Lewis and Teslin Rivers. 



From Photo, by IV. Ogilvie. 



Fortymile River* joins the main river from the west. Its general course as far 
up as the International Boundary, a distance of twenty-three miles, is south-west ; 
after this it is reported by the miners to run nearer south. Many of them claim to 
have ascended this stream for more than one hundred miles, and speak of it there as 
quite a large river. They say that at that distance it has reached the level of the 
plateau, and the country adjoining it they describe as flat and swampy, rising very 
little above the river. It is only a short distance across to the Tanana River — a 
large tributary of the Yukon — which is here described as an important stream. 
However, only about twenty-three miles of Fortymile River are in Canada ; and the 
upper part of it and its relation to other rivers in the district have no direct interest 
for us. 

Fortymile River is one hundred to one hundred and fifty yards wide at the 
mouth, and the current is generally strong, with many small rapids. Eight miles up 
is the so-called canon ; it is hardly entitled to that distinctive name, being simply a 
crooked contraction of the river, with steep rocky banks, and on the north side there 
is plenty of room to walk along the beach. At the lower end of the canon there is 
a short turn and swift water in which are some large rocks ; these cannot generally 
be seen, and there is much danger of striking them running down in a boat. At this 
point several miners have been drowned by their boats being upset in collision with 
these rocks. It is no great distance to either shore, and one would think an ordi- 



* Fortymile townsite is situated on the south side of the Fortymile River at its junction with the 
Yukon. The Alaska Commercial Company has a station here which was for some years in charge of 
L. N. McQuesten ; there are also several blacksmith shops, restaurants, billiard halls, bakeries, an opera 
house, and so on. Rather more than half a mile below Fortymile townsite the town of Cudahy was 
founded on the north side of Fortymile River in the summer of 1892. It is named after a well-known 
member of the North American Transportation and Trading Company. In population and extent of 
business the town bears comparison with its neighbour across the river. The opposition in trade has 
been the means of very materially reducing the cost of supplies and living. The North American Trans- 
portation and Trading Company has erected a saw-mill and some large warehouses. Fort Constantine 
was established here immediately upon the arrival of the Mounted Police detachment in the latter part 
of July, 1895. 



54 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

nary swimmer would have no difficulty in reaching land ; but the coldness of the 
water soon benumbs a man completely and renders him powerless. In the summer 
of 1887, an Indian, from Tanana, with his family, was coming down to trade at the 
post at the mouth of Fortymile River ; his canoe struck on these rocks and 
upset, and he was thrown clear of the canoe, but the woman and children clung 
to it. In the rough water he lost sight of them, and concluded that they were lost ; 
it is said he deliberately drew his knife and cut his throat, thus perishing, while 
his family were hauled ashore by some miners. The chief of the band to which this 
Indian belonged came to the post and demanded pay for his loss, which he contended 
was occasioned by the traders having moved from Belle Isle to Fortymile, thus caus- 
ing them to descend this dangerous rapid, and there is little doubt that had there 
not been so many white men in the vicinity he would have tried to enforce his 
demand. 

The length of the so-called caiion is about a mile. Above it the river up to the 
boundary is generally smooth, with swift current and an occasional ripple. The 
amount of water discharged by this stream is considerable ; but there is no prospect 
of navigation, it being so swift and broken by small rapids. 

From Fortymile River to the boundary the Yukon preserves the same general 
character as between Fort Reliance and Fortymile, the greatest width being about 
half a mile and the least about a quarter. 

Fifteen miles below Fortymile River a large mass of rock stands on the east 
bank. This was named by Schwatka " Roquette Rock," but is known to the traders 
as Old Woman Rock ; a similar mass, on the west side of the river, being known as 
Old Man Rock. 

The origin of these names is an Indian legend, of which the following is the 
version given to me by the traders : — 

In remote ages there lived a powerful shaman, pronounced Tshaumen by the 
Indians, this being the local name for what is known as medicine man among the 
Indians farther south and east. The Tshaumen holds a position and exercises an 
influence among the people he lives with, something akin to the wise men or magi 
of olden times in the East. In this powerful being's locality there lived a poor 
man who had the great misfortune to have an inveterate scold for a wife. He bore 
the infliction for a long time without murmuring, in hopes that she would relent, 
but time seemed only to increase the affliction ; at length, growing weary of the 
unceasing torment, he complained to the Tshaumen, who comforted him, and sent 
him home with the assurance that all would soon be well. 

Shortly after this he went out to hunt, and remained away for many days en- 
deavouring to get some provisions for home use, but without avail ; he returned 
weary and hungry, only to be met by his wife with a more than usually violent out- 
burst of scolding. This so provoked him that he gathered all his strength and 
energy for one grand effort and gave her a kick that sent her clean across the river. 
On landing she was converted into the mass of rock which remains to this day a 
memorial of her viciousness and a warning to all future scolds. The metamorpho- 
sis was effected by the Tshaumen, but how the necessary force was acquired to 
send her across the river (here about half a mile wide), or whether the kick was 
administered by the Tshaumen or the husband, my narrator could not say. He was 
altogether at a loss to account for conversion of the husband into the mass of rock 
on the west side of the river ; nor can I offer any theory unless it is that he was 
petrified by astonishment at the result. 

Such legends as this would be of interest to ethnologists if they could be pro- 
cured direct from the Indians, but repeated by men who have little or no knowledge 
of the utility of legendary lore, and less sympathy with it, they lose much of their 
value. 

Between Fortymile River and the boundary line no stream of any size joins 
the Yukon ; in fact, there is only one stream, which some of the miners have 
named Sheep Creek ; but as there is another stream further down the river, called 
by the same name, I have named it Coal Creek. It is five miles below Forty- 
mile, and comes in from the east, and is a large creek, but not at all navigable. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



55 








r«' I 




56 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

On it some extensive coal seams were seen, which will be more fully referred to 
further on. 

At the boundary the river is somewhat contracted, and measures only 1,280 
feet across in the winter ; but in summer, at ordinary water level, it would be 
about one hundred feet wider. Immediately below the boundary it expands to its 
usual width, which is about 2,000 feet. The cross sectional area at the boundary, 
measured in December, 1895, is 21,818 feet. There is a channel 600 feet wide, 
not less than 22 feet deep, and one 400 feet wide, not less than 26 feet deep. 
During summer level those depths would not be less than 4 feet deeper, and the 
cross sectional area 27,000. The discharge at this first level is approximately 96,000 
cubic feet per second, at summer level it approximates 135,000 cubic feet ; at flood 
level it approaches 180,000 cubic feet or more, possibly reaching, for short times, 
225,000. 

For the sake of comparison, I give the discharge of the St. Lawrence and 
Ottawa Rivers, being the mean of the years 1867 to 1882 ; St. Lawrence, mean 
900,000 feet ; Ottawa, at Grenville, mean 85,000 feet. 

The current, from the boundary down to the confluence with the Porcupine, is ' 
said to be strong, and much the same as that above ; from the Porcupine down for 
a distance of five or six hundred miles it is called medium, and the remainder easy. 

On the 22nd September a small steamboat named the " New Racket" passed 
my camp on her way up to Fortymile River with supplies ; she was about forty 
feet long and nine or ten feet beam, with about two feet draught. The boat was 
wholly taken up with engine and boiler, the berths for the crew being over t le 
engine room. The propelling power was a stern wheel, driven by two engines of 
large size for such a small boat. It was claimed for her by her captain, A. Mayo, 
of the firm of Harper, McQuesten & Co., that she could make ten miles an hour in 
dead water. She was then twenty-two days out from St. Michael Island, near the 
mouth of the river. Mr. Mayo claimed that this was longer than usual, on account 
of the boiler tubes being out of order and leaking badly, so that it was impossible 
to keep more than fifty pounds pressure, while that generally used was about double. 
That this was true was apparent from the fact that it took her about five hours to 
make four miles ; and at one place below my camp she hung for over an hour with- 
out making any progress at all, nor could she pass that point until she stopped and 
bottled up steam. 

* * * * :■: * :l: * * 

AGRICULTURAL CAPABILITIES OF YUKON BASIN. 

The agricultural capabilities of the country along the river are not great, nor 
is the land which can be seen from the river of good quality. 

When we consider further the unsuitable climatic conditions which prevail in 
the region it may be said that as an agricultural district this portion of the country 
will never be of value. 

My meteorological records show over eight degrees of frost on the ist of 
August, over ten on the 3rd, and four times during the month the minimum tem- 
perature was below freezing. On the 13th September the minimum temperature 
was 16°, and all the minimum readings for the remainder of the month were below 
freezing. 

Along the east side of Lake Bennett, opposite the Chilkoot, or western arm, 
there are some fiats of dry gravelly soil, which would make a few farms of limited 
extent. On the west side, around the mouth of Wheaton River, there is an exten- 
sive fiat of sand and gravel, covered with small pine and spruce of stunted growth. 
The vegetation is poor and sparse, not at all what one would desire to see on a 
place upon which he was thinking of settling. At the lower end of the lake there 
is another extensive flat of sandy soil, thinly clad with small poplars and pines. The 
same remarks apply to this flat as to that at Wheaton River. 

Along the westerly shore of Tagish Lake there is a large extent of low, swampy 
flats, a part of which might be used for the production of such roots and cereals as 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



57 



•n 



^ 



^ 



«§^ 




58 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

the climate would permit. Along the west side of Marsh Lake there is also much 
flat surface of the same general character, on which I saw some coarse grass which 
would serve as food for cattle. Along the east side the surface appeared higher 
and terraced, and is probably less suited to the requirements of the agriculturalist. 
Along the head of the river, for some miles below Marsh Lake, there are flats on 
both sides, which would, as far as surface conformation goes, serve for farms. 
The soil is of much better quality than any heretofore seen, as is proved by the 
larger and thicker growth of timber and underbrush which it supports. The 
soil bears less the character of detritus, and more that of alluvium, than that 
seen above. 

As we approach the canon the banks become higher and the bottom lands 
narrower, with some escarpments along the river. At the canon the bank on the 
west side rises two hundred feet and upwards above the river, and the soil is light 
and sandy. On the east side the bank is not so high, but the soil is of the same 
character, and the timber small and poor, being nearly all stunted pine. 

Between the canon and Lake Labarge, as far as seen from the river, there is 
not much land of value. The banks are generally high, and the soil light and 
sandy. At the head of the lake there is an extensive flat, partly covered with tim- 
ber, much larger and better than any seen above this point. Poplar eight and ten 
inches in diameter were not uncommon, and some spruce of fifteen and sixteen 
inches, and many of upwards of a foot in diameter, were also noticed. The soil, 
however, is light, and the vegetation, especially the grass, thin and poor. 

Some miles down the lake an extensive valley joins that of the lake on the 
west side. This valley contains a small stream. Around this place there is some 
land that might be useful, as the grass and vegetation is much better than any 
seen so far. 

On the lower end of the lake, on the west side, there is also a considerable 
plain which might be utilized ; the soil in parts of it is good. I saw one part where 
the timber had been burned some time ago ; here, both the soil and vegetation 
were good, and two or three of the plants seen are common in this part of Ontario, 
but they had not the vigorous appearance which the same plants have here. 

Northward from the end of the lake there is a deep, wide valley, which Dr. 
Dawson has named " Ogilvie Valley." In this the mixed timber, poplar and spruce, 
is of a size which betokens a fair soil ; the herbage, too, is more than usually rich 
for this region. This valley is extensive, and, if ever required as an aid in the sus- 
tenance of our people, will figure largely in the district's agricultural assets. 

Below the lake the valley of the river is not as a rule wide, and the banks are 
often steep and high. There are, however, many flats of moderate extent along 
the river, and at its confluence with other streams. The soil of many of these is 
fair. 

About forty miles above the" mouth of the Pelly River there is an extensive flat 
on both sides of the Lewes. The soil here is poor and sandy, with small open timber. 
At Pelly River there is a flat of considerable extent on which the ruins of Fort Sel- 
kirk stand. It is covered with a small growth of poplar and a few spruce. The soil 
is a gravelly loam of about eight inches in depth, the subsoil being gravel, evidently 
detritus. This flat extends up the river for some miles, but is all covered thickly with 
timber, except a small piece around the site of the fort. 

On the east side of the river there is also a large plateau, but it is two or three 
hundred feet above the river, and the soil appears to be poor, judging from the thin- 
ness and smallness of the trees. This plateau seems to extend up the Pelly for some 
distance, and down the Yukon for ten or twelve miles. As seen from the river, 
it reminds one of the slopes and hills around Kamloops in British Columbia, and like 
them, though not well suited to agriculture, might yield fair pasturage should such 
ever be required. 

A serious objection to it, however, for that purpose, if it is not watered on the 
surface by ponds, is that the river is difficult of access, as the plateau on the side 
towards the river is bounded by a perpendicular basalt cUff, which, without artificial 
arrangement, would completely bar approach to the water. This cliff is more than 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



59 



two hundred feet high at the confluence, and becomes lower as we descend the river, 
until, at the lower end, it is not more than sixty to eighty feet high. 

Between Pelly and White Rivers there are no flats of any extent. At White 
River there is a flat of several thousand acres, but it is all timbered, and the surface 
of the soil is covered with a thick growth of moss, which prevents the frost ever leav- 
ing the ground. This has so preserved fallen timber and the foliage of the trees 
that much of it is lying on the surface nearly as sound as when it fell. On this 
account the vegetable mould on the gravel is thin and poor. The standing timber 
also bears witness to the coldness of the soil by its slow and generally small growth. 
A few trees near the bank, where the sun can heat the soil, are of fair size, but 
further back they are generally small. 

At Stewart River there is another large flat to which the same general remarks 
are applicable. Thence, to the site of Fort Reliance, there are no flats of any im- 
portance. High above the river in some places there are extensive wooded slopes. 




Ogilvie's Party and Boats at Mouth of Pelly River, August, i! 



which, when cleared, would be well suited for such agricultural purposes as the 
climate would permit. 

At Fort Reliance there is a flat of probably 1,500 acres in extent ; but although 
Messrs. Harper & McQuesten lived there for some years, it appears they never made 
any agricultural experiments, believing that they would be futile. 

At the Fortymile River there is a flat of about four or five hundred acres in area, 
on which the soil is of better quality than on many of the other places mentioned. 
On this Messrs. Harper & McQuesten erected their dwelling and store-houses. They 
gave it as their opinion that only very hardy roots would live through the many cold 
nights of the summer months, and that the season is so short that even if they sur- 
vived the cold they would not attain a size fit for use. 

The river is not generally clear of ice until between the 15th of May and the ist 
of June, and heavy frosts occur early in September, and sometimes earlier. 



6o CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

At the boundary there are two flats of several hundred acres each, one on the 
west side, the other three miles above it on the east side. Both of these are covered 
with poplar, spruce and white birch, also some willow and small pine. 

In making preparations for the foundations of our house at our winter quarters 
near the boundary we had to excavate in the bank of the river, and in an exposed 
place where the sun's rays could reach the surface without hindrance from trees or 
other shade we found the depth to the perpetuall}^ frozen ground to be not more 
than two feet. In the woods where the ground was covered with over a foot of 
moss the frozen ground is immediately below the moss. On this the timber is gener- 
ally small, and of very slow growth, as is evident from the number of annual rings 
of growth. I have seen trees of only three or four inches in diameter which were 
upwards of one hundred and fifty years old. 

It is difficult to form an estimate of the total area of agricultural land seen, 
but it certainly bears a very small proportion to the remainder of the country. 
I think ten townships, or 360 square miles, would be a very liberal estimate for 
all the places mentioned. This gives us 230,400 acres, or, say, i,oco farms. The 
available land on the affiuents of the river would probably double this, or give 
2,000 farms in that part of our territory, but on the most of these the returns would 
be meagre. 

Without the discovery and development of large mineral wealth it is not likely 
that the slender agricultural resources of the region will ever attract attention, at 
least until the better parts of our territories are crowded. 

In the event of ,such discovery some of the land might be used for the produc- 
tion of vegetable food for the miners ; but, even in that case, with the transport 
facilities which the district commands, it is very doubtful if it could compete profit- 
ably with the south and east. 

My meteorological records for 1895-6 show as follows : — 

August, 1895 — 32° and below, 5 times. 

40° " 9 times. 

September, 1895 — 32° and below, 18 times. 
40° " 29 times. 

May, 1896 — Lowest temperature 5° ; 3 times, ist, 2nd and 3rd. 
32° and below, 18 times. 
40° " 30 times. 

Highest temperature 62° ; twice, i8th and 23rd. 

June, 1896 — Lowest temperature 28° ; twice, ist and 2nd. 
32° and below, 4 times. 
40° " 17 times. 

Highest temperature 80° ; on the 30th. 

July, 1896 — Lowest temperature 33° ; on the 27th. 
40° and below, 9 times. 
Highest temperature 81° ; twice, ist and 2nd. 

August, 1896 — Lowest temperature 27° .''; on the 31st. 
32° and below, twice. 
40° " 13 times. 

Highest temperature 76° ; on the 14th. 

September, 1896 — Lowest temperature 4° .*; on the 30th. 
32° and below, 8 times. 
40° " 23 times. 

Highest temperature 62,° ; on the 17th. 

During the summer of 1897 at Dawson, temperatures as high as 90° were ob- 
served in the shade in July, but this was an exceptionally dry, warm month. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



6i 




From Photo. I y \V. Oi^ilvie. 
Harper & Ladue's Sawmill at Ogilvie, now at Dawson. 



On my way down the river in 1895 I observed the temperature of the river 
water at various points as follows : — 



Lake Bennett, August 8th, 1895, 49'^ 

Lake Marsh, " 13th, 

Above Teslin River, ... " 19th, 

Teslin River, " 19th, 

Big Salmon, " 20th, 

Yukon, just below, ... " 20th, 

Pelly River, " 22nd, 

Yukon, above White River, " 26th, 

White River " 26th, 

Yukon, above Stewart, . " 26th, 

Stewart River, " 26th, 

Sixtymile River, .... " 27th, 

Klondike River, .... " 28th, 

Yukon, at Reliance, ... " 28th, 

Fortymile River, .... " 30th, 

Yukon River, " 30th, 

Yukon, at boundary, . 



September, 12th, 
" 24th, 

October, ist, 
i6th. 



55" 
53° 
54° 
49° 
53° 
56° 
55° 
52° 
55° 
56° 
46° 

49° 
55° 
52° 
54° 
46° 
39° 
39° 
32° 



The proximity of such a large body of water at those temperatures must have 
a beneficial effect on vegetation, and consequently we will have more success near 
the river than elsewhere. An old miner settled on Fortymile River, above the 



62 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

boundary, tried for several years to raise potatoes but was baullced every year by 
frost, until he found a hillside on which the sun did not shine until about midday. 
This allowed the stalk to gradually get rid of the frost and recover before the heat 
of the sun's rays blasted them. 

In this place he raised tubers developed enough to reproduce, but not as dry 
and well flavoured as we would wish 

In the town of Fortymile, close to the Yukon, potatoes, radishes, turnips, cab- 
bage and lettuce have been grown with fair success, especially the last named. 
Another garden in a fairly situated, well sheltered spot at Cudahy gave fair radishes, 
turnips, cabbage and lettuce. Very fair potatoes were grown on an island at the 
mouth of the Sixtymile, in the Yukon, by Mr. Harper. He had also a garden at 
Selkirk (mouth of the Pelly), in which he planted potatoes for several years, but to 
protect them from frost went to the expense of having an immense awning made of 
heavy cotton which he lowered on them every clear night when frost threatened. 
Without this they would not have ripened. 

Oats have been sown at Fortymile for several years but never ripened, though 
they develop enough to make fair fodder. Some wheat at Cudahy, in 1896, devel- 
oped fine straw and a large head, but no kernel before frost killed it. 

Some timothy grass at the same place grew to about half the size it does in 
Ontario or Quebec: 

TIMBER FOR USE IN BUILDING AND MANUFACTURING. 

The amount of this class of timber in the district along the river is not at all 
important. There is a large' extent of forest which would yield firewood, and timber 
for use in mines, but for the manufacture of lumber there is very little. 

To give an idea of its scarceness, I may state that two of my party made a 
thorough search of all the timbered land around the head of Lake Bennett, and 
down the lake for over ten miles, and in all this search only one tree was found 
suitable for making such plank as we required for the construction of our large 
boat. This tree made four planks 15 inches wide at the butt, 7 at the top, and 31 
feet long. 

Such other planks as we wanted had to be cut out of short logs, of which some, 
10 to 14 inches in diameter and 10 to 16 feet long, could be found at long intervals. 
The boat required only 450 feet of plank for its construction, yet some of the logs 
had to be carried nearly 200 yards, and two saw-pits had to be made before that 
quantity was procured, and this on ground that was all thickly wooded with 
spruce, pine, and some balsam, the latter being generally the largest and cleanest- 
trunked. 

These remarks apply to the timber until we reach the lower end of Marsh Lake. 
On the head of the river, near the lake, some trees of fair size, 12 to 14 inches in 
diameter, and carrying their thickness very well, could be got, but their number was 
small, and they were much scattered. 

At the canon the timber is small and scrubby ; below it there were a few trees 
that would yield planks from 7 to 10 inches wide, but they have been nearly all cut 
by the miners, many of whom made rafts at the head of Lake Bennett, floated 
down to White Horse Rapids, and there abandoned them for boats which they 
then built. 

The great bulk of the timber in the district suitable for manufacture into lum- 
ber is to be found on the islands in the river. On them the soil is warmer and richer, 
the sun's rays striking the surface for a much longer time, and more directly than on 
the banks. 

At the confluence with the Pelly, on the east side of the river, there is a grove 
of spruce, from which some very nice lumber could be made, and on the islands 
below this much of the same class of timber exists. Near White and Stewart Rivers 
there is a good deal of nice clean timber, but it is small. It is said there is more 
good timber on Stewart River in proportion to the ground wooded than on the main 
river. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



63 



Between Stewart River and the boundary there is not so much surface covered 
with large trees as on many of the flats above it, the valley being generally narrower, 
and the sides steeper than higher up the river. This, of course, precludes the growth 
of timber. 

To estimate the quantity of timber in the vicinity of the river in our territory 
would be an impossible task, having only such data as I was able to collect on my 
way down. I would, however, say that one- fourth of the area I have given as agri- 
cultural land would be a fair conjecture. This would give us two and a half town- 
ships, or ninety square miles, of fairly well timbered ground ; but it must be borne 
in mind that there is not more than a square mile or so of that in any one place, and 
most of the timber would be small and poor compared with the timber of Manitoba 
and the easterly part of the North-west Territories. 

At the Boundary Line I required, as has already been explained, a tree 22 inches 
in diameter at the ground on which to erect my transit. An exhaustive search of 
over three square miles of the woods there, though showing many trees of conven- 
ient size for house logs, and many for small clean planks, showed only one 18 inches 
in diameter at a distance of five feet above the ground. 

It may be said that the country might furnish much timber, which, though not 
fit to be classed as merchantable, would meet many of the requirements of the only 
industry the country is ever likely to have, viz., mining. 

MINERALS. 

Under this head I will first mention coal. A thin seam of this was found on 
Lewes River, about six miles above Five Finger Rapids. This seam was about three 
feet thick and at that stage of water was 8 or ro feet above the river. It could be 
traced for several hundred yards along the bank. Dr. Dawson made an examina- 
tion of this seam, and I quote from his report regarding it : *' This exposure includes, 
within 60 feet of the base of the bluff, at least three coal beds, of which the lowest is 




Dawson, April, 1897. 



From Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 



64 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

about three feet thick. This and the other beds contain some good-looking coal, of 
which a thickness of about a foot sometimes occurs, but the greater part of the 
material is so sandy and impure as to be useless." This exposure has since been 
located and claimed by Mr. Harper. He had a shaft driven into the hill about 20 
feet, from which he took some coal for local forge use, and claimed it served the pur- 
pose well. The coal that far in was hard and bright, but is scattered in irregularly 
thin seams through a soft sandstone rock. This rock has to be taken out with and 
separated from the coal. This shaft does not include all the coal veins, as they 
appear to be scattered through this hill-side for many feet. As far as this shaft goes 
there appears to be a slight dip to the east. 

At Rink Rapids thin seams of coal were seen in some shale on the east bank of 
the river. They were unimportant, being only an inch or so thick, but they show a 
probable continuation of the first mentioned bed, and a likeUhood that a search 
would reveal an exposure of some value. 

No other trace of coal was seen until Coal Creek, five miles below Fortymile 
River, was reached. In the drift at the mouth of this creek I picked up specimens 
of coal much weathered and worn. I made inquiries of the Indians in the vicinity, 
but they manifested surprise at my showing it to them and burning some of it be- 
fore them. They professed entire ignorance of the existence of any such stuff up 
the creek, and said they had never seen or heard of it, though they must, however, 
^ave seen it at Belle Isle, near which place there is some on a creek that comes in 
from the west. Some of this Messrs. Harper & McQuesten had brought to the 
post and burned there, and they had also sent some to San Francisco to be tested. 

METALS FOUND ON THE RIVER. 

About two miles up Fortymile River there are large exposures of a white and 
a gray limestone, containing many thin seams and pockets of galena. One of the 
seams as seen on the bank is of considerable extent, but as to its length there is no 
evidence, as it is all covered with drift. Two specimens were sent out and have been 
assayed by Mr. G. C. Hoffman, of the Geological Survey, with the following result : 
Specimen marked II., from Fortymile, about two and a half miles up, contains : 
gold, a distinct trace ; silver, 38^^-^ ounces to the ton of 2,000 pounds. 

Specimen marked III., from exposure on Fortymile River, about three-quarters 
of a mile up, contains neither gold nor silver. 

Were these seams properly surveyed the former might be found of sufficient 
extent and value to warrant development. 

Specimen marked I., from north bank of Yukon River, opposite the mouth of 
Klondike River, about five miles above Fort Reliance, contains : gold, a trace ; 
silver, 3y6_4_ ounces to the ton. 

Mr. Harper told me he had sent out specimens of the latter ore to San Fran- 
cisco some years ago for assay, and that it was pronounced good, but he could not 
give the value. I did not make an examination of the seam, but it appeared to be 
extensive. It is of a bluish colour on the surface, and earthy in appearance. 

Specimen marked IV., from near station 634 of survey, or near Chandindu 
River, ten or twelve miles below Fort Reliance, contains : gold, a trace ; silver, 
0.1 1 7 ounces to the ton. Nothing was observed at this point to indicate an exten- 
sive quantity of this ore. 

It must be borne in mind that these specimens were found by accident. A 
closer examination of the localities might reveal valuable seams. I have described 
the specimens found in the order of their value. Though none of them are rich, they 
show that through an extensive district there are at least indications of wealth. 
The order in which they were picked up on the river is, I., IV., and II. and III. 
together on Fortymile River. From I. to III. is about forty miles in an air line. 
I was informed that gold and silver-bearing specimens of quartz had been found 
on Sixtymile River, but I can give no details. I was also informed that a speci- 
men of gold-bearing quartz was picked up some years ago, high up on the side of 
the bank of Yukon River, opposite the mouth of White River. It was sent to San 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



65 



Francisco and assayed, showing the enormous value of $20,000 to the ton. This 
specimen was picked up above high water mark, so that it must have been found at 
or near its origin, or have been transported there by a glacier, the bank being about 
1,200 feet high. No further details regarding this specimen could be learned. 

An extensive ledge of gold-bearing quartz is reported on the westerly side of 
the river, about two miles above Stewart River, but regarding it I could learn 




From Photo, by IV. Ogilvie. 
On Eldorado Creek. — Looking N. W. across Bonanza Valley. 



nothing definite. It may be a continuation of the same ledge which yielded the 
foregoing specimen. 

While on Lake Bennett building our boat I found an extensive ledge of quartz 
and sent specimens of it out by Dr. Dawson. The assay showed that they con- 
tained only traces of gold. The ledge is 60 to 80 feet wide, and can be easily 
traced on the surface for three or four miles. A small creek cuts through it about 
a mile from the lake, and in this creek are found colours of gold. 

While we were working at our boat an expert, employed by some California 
capitalists, came in with an old man who had made a descent of the river the pre- 
vious summer. The old man and his party were storm-staid on what he called 
Lake Bennett, and while so delayed he found an enormous exposure of what he 
thought was gold bearing rock. He took out specimens of it, and had them 
assayed at San Francisco. The result was so promising ($8.80 of gold, and 92 
cents of silver to the ton) that he enlisted the interest of some capitalists who sent 
him out with the expert to locate and test it thoroughly. The old man described 
the exposure so minutely and circumxStantially that one could scarcely disbelieve 
his statement. They looked for the ledge for some days, but could find nothing 
resembling what he described. They then called upon me and requested my aid. 
As I was making all possible haste to keep my appointment with Dr. Dawson at 
Pelly River I was loath to lose time in aiding the search, but, on account of the 



66 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

importance of the matter, and the old man's earnestness and importunity, and 
influenced further by a certificate of assay which he had, showing the specimens 
to have yielded the amounts stated (about equal to the celebrated Treadwell mine 
at Juneau, Alaska, the rock of which he said his mine much resembled), I at last 
consented. 

I spent a day and a night searching with him and his associates, but we failed 
to find anything like what he described. The old man told so many conflicting 
stories, and seemed to know so little of the lake, that I became convinced he was 
astray, and had been hoaxed by some one with a piece of the Treadwell rock. I 
then left them to shift for themselves. The expert took the same view of the matter, 
and, as he was in charge of the search, ended it there. 

I afterwards, on Lake Tagish, saw a place much resembling that described. It 
is on the south side of the lake, and just east of its junction with the Takone arm. 
I was strongly of opinion that this is the place he referred to, and would have 
examined it to verify my impression, but the wind was too strong and the lake too 
rough to allow of crossing over. 

These are all the indications of ore in situ which I saw or heard of. 

The gold heretofore found and worked in this district has been all placer gold. 
Search was made for it occasionally by us along the lakes and river as we descended, 
but with the exception of the colours mentioned at the quartz ledge on Lake Ben- 
nett, none was found until after we had passed Lake Labarge, about six miles 
below which, at a sharp, short bend in the river we found in a bar many colours to 
the pan. It may be said generally that colours are found anywhere on the river 
between that point and the boundary, and also on the tributaries which have been 
prospected. 

It is probable that we have not less than 1,400 miles of stream in our part of the 
district, upon all of which gold can be found. 

About eighteen miles below the Teslin I saw the first place that had been 
worked for gold. Here a hut had been erected, and there were indications that a 
party had wintered there. Between it and Big Salmon River six other locations 
were met with. One of them named Cassiar Bar was worked in the season of 1886, 
by a party of four, who took out $6,000 in thirty days. They were working there 
when I passed in 1887, but stated that all they could get that season was $10 per 
day, and that it was then (3rd August) about worked out. At the time of my visit 
they were trying the bank, but found the ground frozen at a depth of about three 
feet, though there was no timber or moss on it. They had recourse to fire to thaw 
out the ground, but found this slow work. 

Two of this party subsequently went down to Fortymile River, where I met one 
of them. He was a Swede, and had been gold mining for upwards of twenty-five 
years in California and British Columbia, He gave me his opinion on the district in 
these words : " I never saw a country where there was so much gold, and so evenly 
distributed ; no place is very rich, but no place is very poor ; every man can make a 
' grub stake ' (that is enough to feed and clothe him for a year) which is more than I 
can say of the other places I have been in." 

In conversation with Mr. T. Boswell, who, as already stated, had prospected 
the Teslin or Newberry River, in the summer of 1887, I learned that the whole 
length of that river yielded fine gold, generally at the rate of $8 to $10 per day; but 
as the miners' great desideratum is coarse gold, they do not remain long in a country 
in which only fine gold is found — generally no longer than is necessary to make a 
" grub stake," unless gold is in unusually large quantities. Mr, Boswell, therefore, 
went to the lower part of the river, having heard the reports of rich finds. 

Stewart River was the first in the district on which mining to any extent was 
done. In 1886 there were quite a number of miners on it engaged in washing gold, 
and they all appeared to have done fairly well. Their exact number I could not 
ascertain. 

I may say that it is generally very difficult to get any exact, or even approxi- 
mately exact, statement of facts or values from miners. Many of them are inveter- 
ate jokers, and take delight in hoaxing : the higher the official or social position of 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



67 



the person they hoax the better they are pleased. I have several times found that 
after spending hours getting information from one of them it would be all contra- 
dicted by the next one I met. Another cause of difficulty in getting trustworthy 
information from them is that in a certain sense they consider every government 
official or agent their enemy, and that he is in the country to spy upon their doings, 
and find out their earnings, which latter the great majority of them are very much 
averse to have known. 

So far as I could see or learn, they do not even disclose to each other their earn- 
ings for the season. I met one or two who told me that they had made a certain 
amount in the season, but on enquiry among the rest these statements were ridiculed 
and declared untrue. As a rule they are very generous and honest in their dealings 
with their fellow men, but a desire for correct geographical or statistical knowledge 
does not actuate very many of them ; hence the disagreement and often contradic- 
tion in their statements. 

I have heard the amount of gold taken from off Stewart River in 1885 and 1886 
estimated at various amounts. One estimate was $300,000, but this must be exces- 
sive. The highest amount I heard as representing one man's earnings was about 
$6,000. This may be true, as many agree that $30 per day, per man, was common 




From Photo, by W. Ogih'ie. 
Looking North Down Yukon River, from Mountain Top East of Dawson. 



on many of the bars of the river, and instances of as high as $100 per day having 
been earned were spoken of. 

The only mining done on Stewart River was on the bars in the river ; the bench 
and bank bars were all timbered and frozen, so that to work them would entail a 
resort to hydraulic mining, for which there was no machinery in the country. 

During the fall of 1886, three or four miners combined and got the owners of 
the '^ New Racket" steamboat to allow the use of her engine to work pumps for 
sluicing with. The boat was hauled up on a bar, her engines detached from the 



68 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

wheels, and made to drive a set of pumps manufactured on the ground, which sup- 
plied water for a set of sluicing boxes. With this crude machinery, in less than a 
month, the miners cleared $i,ooo each, and paid an equal amount to the owners of 
the boat as their share. 

Alexander McDonald, who has been mentioned before, reported to me that the 
gold on the upper river was somewhat coarser than that on the lower, but not enough 
so as to be called "coarse gold." He seemed to be satisfied with the result of his 
season's prospecting, and intended spending the next season there. This man wan- 
dered around the country prospecting alone until 1894 (I think), when his dead body 
was found on the bank of the Yukon River, and buried where it was found. It 
appears he started off alone as usual on a prospecting trip up the Yukon, and on the 
way, it is supposed, he was taken sick, as the body was found wrapped in his blankets, 
and bore the appearance of dying while asleep. 

Many of the miners who had spent 1886 on Stewart River, and 1887 on Forty- 
mile River, seemed to think the former the better all round mining field, as there 
were no such failures there as on Fortymile, and they declared their intention to 
make their way back to the Stewart for the season of 1888. 

Fortymile River is the only river in the district on which, up to the fall of 1888, 
coarse gold had been found, and it may be said that much of it can hardly claim 
that distinctive title. The largest nugget found was worth about $39. It was lost 
on the body of a miner who was drowned at the canon. Several other nuggets of 
much less value have been found, but the number of pieces which one could call 
" nugget " are few. 

• The miners term Fortymile a " bed-rock " creek — that is, one in the bed of 
which there is little or no drift, or detrital matter, the bottom of the river being bed- 
rock. In many places this rock has been scraped with knives by the miners, in order 
to gather the small amount of detritus and its accompanying gold. 

Very little of the gold on this creek was found in Canadian territory, the coarsest 
gold being found well up the river. The river had been prospected in 1887 for 
upwards of one hundred miles, and gold found all the way up. The great point with 
a miner is to find where the gold comes from. To do this he has to reach a point on 
the river where there is none ; then he knows he has passed the source, and will 
search in side valleys and gulches. The theory seems to be that the gold is stored 
up somewhere and dribbled out along the river. 

Pieces of gold-bearing quartz had frequently been picked up along the river in 
the shallow drift, but none had been found in place, nor did it appear to me that 
much search had been made for it. Near the mouth of the river there is an extensive 
flat of detrital matter through which a couple of small creeks flow. This is all said 
to be gold-bearing, and, it was thought, would pay well for sluicing. Accordingly a 
couple of claimants had staked off claims at the mouth of the creek, and intended to 
try sluicing in the season of 1888. I have not heard how the venture succeeded. It 
was abandoned in 1889 through high water. 

During the season of 1887 some miners prospected Pelly River, but I have no 
information as to their success. Dr. Dawson mentions the fact of their being there, 
but does not appear to have got any statistics from them. 

Big and Little Salmon Rivers have also been prospected, with the usual result 
that more or less gold has been found everywhere. 

I think it may, with confidence, be asserted that rich finds will yet be made of 
both coarse gold and gold-bearing quartz. It is not likely in the nature of things that 
such a vast extent of country should have all its fine gold deposited as sediment, 
brought from a distance in past ages of the world's development. If this is not the 
case, the matrix from which all the gold on these streams has come must still exist, 
in part at least, and will no doubt be discovered, and thus enrich this otherwise 
gloomy and desolate region. 

There are many bank and bench bars along the river which would pay well if 
sluiced, but there is no convenient or economical way of getting water on them, and 
there is no pumping machinery as yet in the country. One bank bar of large extent, 
called Rogers' Bar, just below Old Man Rock, attracted attention in the spring of 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



69 



1888, and some miners were thinking of getting in an engine and pumps to work it. 
I made an estimate of the size of engine required for their needs, and computed the 
probable cost of the plant laid down, but it does not appear that they made any- 
further move. 

This bar is more than fifty feet above the water. It fronts on the river for more 
than two miles', and is in places nearly two miles deep. It is believed that in past 







From Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 



Looking N. W. from Head of Bonanza Creek. 



ages the Old Man and Old Woman rocks were connected and formed a barrier across 
the river, over which there was a cataract. Below this the fine gold remained, while 
the sand and gravel were in part carried further down. So impressed were some 
persons with the prospect of rich finds on this bar that they thought of bringing 
water across from the high level of Fortymile River, a distance of over thirty miles ; 
but when I went up Fortymile River to the boundary I saw that it could not be done 
without the aid of force pumps, and I explained this drawback to them. This bar is 
said to yield four to six cents to the pan, which, with plenty of water for sluicing, 
would pay well, while its large extent would warrant considerable outlay. Doubt- 
less there are many other bars as rich as this one, though not as large. 

Platinum is generally found associated with gold. This is particularly the case 
on Fortymile River. 

As very few outside of mining communities understand anything of the nomen- 
clature of the craft, or of the methods employed to separate the very small quanti- 
ties of the precious metal from the baser material with which it is associated, a short 
description will not be out of place. 

When a miner " strikes " a bar he " prospects " it by washing a few panfuls of 
the gravel or sand of which it is composed. According to the number of " colours " 
he finds to the pan, that is, the number of specks of gold he can see in his pan after 
all the dirt has been washed out, he judges of its richness. Many of them have had 



70 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

so much experience that they can tell in a few minutes, very nearly, how much a bar 
will yield per day to the man. 

The process of "placer" mining is about as follows: After clearing all the 
coarse gravel and stone off a patch of ground, the miner lifts a little of the finer 
gravel or sand in his pan, which is a broad, shallow dish, made of strong sheet 
steel ; he then puts in water enough to fill the pan, and gives it a few rapid whirls 
and shakes ; this tends to bring the gold to the bottom on account of its greater spe- 
cific gravity. The dish is then shaken and held in such a way that the gravel and 
sand are gradually washed out, care being taken as the process nears completion to 
avoid letting out the finer and heavier parts that have settled to the bottom. Fin- 
ally all that is left in the pan is whatever gold may have been in the dish and some 
black sand which almost invariably accompanies it. 

This black sand is nothing but pulverized magnetic iron ore. Should the gold 
thus found be fine, the contents of the pan are thrown into a barrel containing water 
and a pound or two of mercury. As soon as the gold comes into contact with the 
;»mercury it combines with it and forms an amalgam. The process is continued until 
enough amalgam has been formed to pay for "roasting" or "firing." It is then 
squeezed through a buckskin bag, all the mercury that comes through the bag being 
put back into the barrel to serve again, and what remains in the bag is placed in a 
retort, if the miner has one, or, if not, on a shovel, and heated until nearly all the 
mercury is vaporized. The gold then remains in a lump, with some mercury still 
held in combination with it. 

This is called the " pan " or " hand " method, and is never, on account of its 
slowness and laboriousness, continued for any length of time when it is possible to 
procure a " rocker," or to make and work sluices. 

A " rocker " is simply a box about three feet long and two wide, made in two 
parts, the top part being shallow, with a heavy sheet iron bottom, which is 
punched full of quarter-inch holes. The other part of the box is fitted with an 
inclined shelf about midway in its depth, which is six or eight inches lower at its 
lower end than at its upper. Over this is placed a piece of heavy woollen blanket. 
The whole is then mounted on two rockers, much resembling those of an ordinary 
cradle, and when in use they are placed on two blocks of wood so that the whole 
may be readily rocked. After the miner has selected his claim, he looks for the 
most convenient place to set up his " rocker," which must be near a good supply of 
water. Then he proceeds to clear away all the stones and coarse gravel, gathering 
the finer gravel and sand in a heap near the "rocker." The shallow box on top is 
filled with this, and with one hand the miner rocks it, while with the other he ladles 
in water. The finer matter with the gold falls through the holes on to the blanket, 
which checks its progress, and holds the fine particles of gold, while the sand and 
other matter pass over it to the bottom of the box, which is sloped so that what 
comes through is washed downwards and finally out of the box. Across the bottom 
of the box are fixed thin slats, behind which some mercury is placed to catch any 
particles of gold which may escape the blanket. If the gold is nuggety, the large 
nuggets are found in the upper box, their weight detaining them until all the lighter 
stuff has passed through, and the smaller ones are held by a deeper slat at the out- 
ward end of the bottom of the box. The piece of blanket is, at intervals, taken out 
and rinsed into a barrel ; if the gold is fine, mercury is placed at the bottom of the 
barrel, as already mentioned. 

Sluicing is always employed when possible. It requires a good supply of water 
with sufficient head or fall. The process is as follows : Planks are procured and 
formed into a box of suitable width and depth. Slats are fixed across the bottom of 
the box at suitable intervals, or shallow holes bored in the bottom in such order that 
no particle could run along the bottom in a straight line and escape running over a 
hole. Several of these boxes are then set up with a considerable slope and are fitted 
into one another at the ends like a stove-pipe. A stream of water is now directed 
into the upper end of the highest box. The gravel having been collected, as in the 
case of the rocker, it is shovelled into the upper box and is washed downwards by 
the strong current of water. The gold is detained by its weight, and is held by the 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



71 




FroDL Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 



Looking across Bonanza Valley and up Eldorado Valley to Claim No. 7. 



slats or in the holes mentioned ; if it is fine, mercury is placed behind the slats, or in 
these holes to catch it. In this way about three times as much dirt can be washed 
as by the rocker, and consequently three times as much gold is secured in a given 
time. After the boxes are done with they are burned, and the ashes washed for the 
gold held in the wood.* 

Unfortunately, on Lewes and Pelly Rivers there is no way of sluicing without 
the aid of pumps, there being no streams with fall enough to get the necessary cur- 
rent in the sluice boxes. 

Ther^ is very little reliable information as to the amount of gold that has been 



* A great many of the miners spend their time in the summer prospecting and in the winter resort 
to a method lately adopted, and which is called "burning." They make fires on the surface, thus thaw- 
ing the ground until the bed rock is reached, then drift and tunnel ; the pay dirt is brought to the surface 
and heaped in a pile until spring, when water can be obtained. The sluice boxes are then set up and 
the dirt is washed out, thus enabling the miner to work advantageously and profitably the year round. 
This method has been found very satisfactory in places where the pay streak is at any great depth from 
the surface. In this way the complaint is overcome which has been so commonly advanced by miners 
and others, that in the Yukon several months of the year are lost in idleness. Winter usually sets in 
very soon after the middle of September, and continues until the beginning of June, and is decidedly cold. 
The mercury frequently falls to 60 degrees below zero, but in the interior there is so little humidity in the 
atmosphere that the cold is more easily endured than on the coast. The temperature runs pretty high 
in summer as well as low in the winter ; it is' quite a common thing for the thermometer to register 80-90 
degrees in the shade. There is continuous daylight from the middle of May until the early part of 
August, but in the depth of winter there is little more than three hours of partial daylight in the twenty- 
four. So that constant daylight for a portion of the year and almost total darkness for another portion 
might very well create doubts in one's mind as to what portion of the day in either case should be given 
to sleep. In the summer months it is possible for a miner to put in as many hours as he has the power 
to endure the physical strain. Constant daylight admits of several shifts of men being employed, and in 
this way mining operations may go on continuously throughout every hour of the day. 



72 



CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 



taken out of the district since its discovery and development. The following is the 
best estimate which I can form on the subject : 

Stewart River was pretty well worked for two seasons, 1885-86, by about forty 
men, some of whom made at least $5,000. Assuming that they averaged half that 
amount, we have $100,000 as their earnings. Fortymile River, the only other 
stream from which any large quantity has been taken, was worked in the summer 
of 1887 by about three hundred men, many of whom spent only a few weeks on the 
river, some only a few days. The statement made by those of whom I inquired 
was that all who worked on the river for any length of time made a "grub stake." 
Putting this at the lowest value I placed on it, $450, and assuming that two hundred 
and fifty men made each this sum, we have $112,500 as the amount taken out on 
this stream. I have heard the sum placed at $130,000. 

All the gold taken from the other streams by prospectors would not amount to 
more than a few thousand dollars, so that it is probable the total amount taken out 
of the whole district is in, the vicinity of a quarter of a million dollars, of which about 
half was taken out in our territory. 

I learned that the prevailing high water interfered very much with the success 
of the miners in the season of 1888, and that many of them left the country in the 
fall. It is probable, however, that a few will remain prospecting until something 
rich is found. 

As Dr. Dawson has reported on the geology of the region a'.ong the Lewes, and 
Mr. McConnell has made an examination of the Yukon froni Porcupine River, it is 
needless to do more than to refer to their reports. I may briefly state, however, that 
the whole course of the river in Canada is through a mountainous country, the rocks 
of which, as far as seen, are principally granite, schists, shales and some limestone, 
the latter at Lake Labarge. There is also some basalt at the canon and at the con- 
fluence with Pellv River. 



T 




From Photo. 6y W. Ogilvie. 
From mountain top east of Dawson. — Looking up and across the Klondike Valley. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



73 




74 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

Just below Coal Creek a range of high mountains comes in from the southeast, 
and continues down the river past the boundary. These mountains are composed 
principally of limestone, with occasional exposure of shale and sandstone. 

While going down the river' with the survey I located some prominent peaks by 
triangulation, and determined their height. Unfortunately, I could not, owing to 
cloudy weather, get as many as I wished. Those located are shown on my map of 
the survey. I have named a few of them, as they have not, to my knowledge, been 
previously named. 

One of them, seen from the south end of Lake Labarge on the east side, I have 
named Mount Dawson, after Dr. Dawson of the Geological Survey. Its altitude 
above the lake was taken from two points on the east side, from which its distance 
was, respectively, 724.5 and 773 chains. The height, as deduced from the observed 
angles of elevation of the top from each station, was, respectively, 3,238 and 3,265 
feet. Part of this difference is no doubt due to want of precision in the instrument 
used, and part to the fact that the same point may not have been sighted on from 
both stations. The latter height is probably the nearer to the truth. The altitude 
of the lake I have put at 1,959 feet, which would make the height of the mountain 
5,222 feet above the sea. 

Another peak near the boundary I have named Mount Morrison, after a member 
of my party ; and another Mount Gladman, after another member. These two peaks 
are the highest seen from the river in the vicinity of the boundary. Mount Morrison 
was ascended and its height determined by aneroid barometer, the mean of the read- 
ings at starting from and returning to the river being compared with the reading 
at the top. The difference between the two readings at the river was about fifty 
feet. The height thus determined was 2,390 feet, which gives the altitude above sea 
3,180 feet. Mount Gladman was apparently a little higher. 

The only people doing business in the country outside of gold mining were 
Messrs. Harper, McQuesten & Co. They have been trading at several points on the 
river pretty constantly since 1874. They occupied Fort Reliance for some years, 
and in 1886 they established a post at Stewart River to meet the demands of the 
miners who were working there. They did not anticipate the rush to the country 
that took place in that year, and their supplies ran short, so that all were for some 
months on the verge of starvation. Unfortunately, too, scurvy broke out in the 
camp, and there was much suffering. 

In 1887 they established a post at Fortymile River, whither nearly all the miners 
had gone, coarse gold having been discovered there during the previous fall. Dur- 
ing the winter of 1887-88 they did business at both these posts, Messrs. Harper & 
McQuesten being in charge of Fortymile, and Mr. Mayo at Stewart River. The 
latter post was kept open principally for the Indian trade, though had there been no 
miners there it is probable they would have abandoned it. I could not learn 
definitely the amount of their sales to the miners in 1887, as it is a delicate question 
to ask a person who is selling foreign goods in Canadian territory to reveal to a 
Canadian employed by the Government the amount of his trade. Very likely, had 
I asked the question, I would have received a short answer, though in every other 
way I am under great obligation to Messrs. Harper & McQuesten for acts of kind- 
ness and attention, both sought and unsought. 

A person who had a good idea of the amount of their business during the season 
estimated their sales at $60,000, and from facts which came under my own observa- 
tion I consider this not far from the truth. 

Until the miners visited the country the trade done by this firm was confined to 
barter with the natives for furs. I understand that they do a sort of commission busi- 
ness for the Alaska Commercial Company — that is, the company supply goods at 
a certain advance on San Francisco prices, and deliver them at the trading post 
at a certain rate per ton. In payment they take whatever pelts have been col- 
lected at a certain pre-arranged price, varying according to the state of the fur 
market. I understand, however, their freight charges remain constant, and are $30 
per ton for goods paid for in furs, and $125 per ton for goods paid for in cash, 
the latter being the goods imported for the use of the miners. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



75 




76 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

Their prices for goods in 1887 were not exorbitant, 3'et tiiere must have been a 
fair profit. They were : Flour, $17.50 per hundred pounds ; bacon, $40 per hundred ; 
beans, $18 per bushel ; sugar, $30 per hundred, and tea, $1.25 per pound. Both of 
these gentlemen came into the country in the summer of 1873, Mr. Harper crossing 
the mountains from the Cariboo gold fields in British Columbia, and descending Liard 
River to the Mackenzie. He went down the latter river and up the Peel, whence 
he crossed to the waters of the Porcupine, which he descended to the Yukon ; he 
then went up the latter to White River, where he wintered. 

Mr. McQuesten came in at the same time by way of Peace River, trading for a 
short time around Lake Athabasca before he descended the Mackenzie. 

The principal furs procured in the district are the silver-gray and black fox, the 
number of which bears a greater ratio to the number of red foxes than in any other 
part of the country. The red fox is very common, and a species called' the blue is 
abundant near the coast. Marten, or sable, are also numerous, as are lynx ; but otter 
are scarce, and beaver almost unknown. 

It is probable that the value of the gray and black fox skins taken out of the 
country more than equals in value all the other furs. I could get no statistics con- 
cerning this trade for obvious reasons. 

Game is not now as abundant as before mining began, and it is difficult, in fact 
impossible, to get any close to the river. The Indians have to ascend the tributary 
streams ten to twenty miles to get anything worth going after. Here on the uplands 
vast herds of caribou* still wander, and when the Indians encounter a herd they 
allow very few to escape, even though they do not require the meat. When they 
have plenty they are not at all provident, and consequently are often in want when 
game is scarce. They often kill animals which they know are so poor as to be use- 
less for food, just for the love of slaughter. 

An Indian who was with me one day saw two caribou passing and wanted me to 
shoot them. I explained to him that we had plenty, and that I would not destroy 
them uselessly, but this did not accord with his ideas. He felt displeased because I 
did not kill them myself or lend him my rifle for the purpose, and remarked in as 
good English as he could command : " I like to kill whenever I see it." 

Some years ago moose were very numerous along the river, but now they are 
very seldom seen, except at some distance back from it. Early in the winter of 
1887-88 the Indians remained around the miners' camps, and subsisted by begging 
until all further charity was refused. Even this for some time did not stir them, and 
it was not until near Christmas that sheer hunger drove them off to hunt. One 
party went up the Tatonduc some fifteen or twenty miles, and in a short time was 
revelling in game, especially caribou. The other party did not succeed for some 
time in getting anything, although a large district was searched over, but finally went 
up Coal Creek about twenty miles, and there killed eighteen moose in one day. 
They brought in two thousand pounds of the meat to the post, and sold it for ten 
cents per pound to the miners, with whom it was in great demand on account of the 
prevalence of scurvy in the camp. 

A boom in mining would soon exterminate the game in the district along the 
river. 

The ordinary caribou runs in herds, often numbering hundreds. It is easily 
approached, and, when fired at, jumps around awhile as though undecided what to 
do ; it then runs a short distance, but just as likely towards the hunter as from him, 
stops again, and so on for a number of times. At last, after many of them have 
been killed, the remainder start on a continuous run, and probably do not stop until 
they have covered twenty or thirty miles. When the Indians find a herd they sur- 
round it, gradually contracting the circle thus formed, when the animals, being too 
timid to escape by a sudden rush, are slaughtered wholesale. 

There are four species of bear found in the district — the grizzly, brown, black, 
and a small kind, locally known as the "silver-tip," the latter being gray in colour, 
with a white throat and beard, whence its name. It is said to be fierce, and does 



There were no caribou in this locality last year. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



77 




From p/uto. by IV. Ogilvic. 

Animal Remains found in the Pay-Streak on Bonanza and Eldorado^Creeks, and Section 
of Wood found 12 Feet below the Surface on Bonanza Creek. 



78 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

not wait to be attacked, but to attack on sight. I had not the pleasure of seeing 
any, but heard many "yarns" about them, some of which, I think, were "hunters' 
tales." It appears, however, that miners and Indians, unless travelling in numbers, 
or especially well armed, give them as wide a berth as they conveniently can. 

Wolves are not plentiful. A few of the common gray species only are killed, 
the black being very scarce. 

The arctic rabbit or hare is sometimes found, but they are not numerous. 
There is a curious fact in connection with the ordinary hare or rabbit which I have 
observed, but of which I have never yet seen any satisfactory explanation. Their 
numbers vary from a very few to myriads, in periods of seven years. For about 
three years one may travel for days without seeing more than a sign of them ; then 
for two years they are numerous, and increase for two years more, until finally the 
country is alive with them, when they begin to disappear, and in a few months there 
are none to be seen. If it is an epidemic that carries them off, it is strange that 
their carcasses are never observed in any number. 

It appears the martens are also subject to a periodical increase and decrease, 
and in this case a satisfactory explanation of the cause is also wanting. 

The mountain sheep (Big Horn) and mountain goat exist everywhere in the ter- 
ritory ; but, as they generally frequent the sides of the highest mountains, they are 
seldom seen from the river. There is a beautiful species of pure white Big Horn 
found in the mountains on the head of Coal Creek, and presumedly elsewhere in 
that region. 

Birds are scarce. A few ravens were seen along the river, and three or four 
remained in the vicinity of the boundary all winter. They were generally more active 
and noisy on stormy days than at other times, and their hoarse croak had a dismal 
sound amid the roar of the elements. 

A few magpies were seen near Nordenskiold River, and a few white-headed 
eagles were also noticed. 

During the winter, near the boundary, numbers of small birds, somewhat 
resembling the "chick-adee," were seen, but they were much larger and had not 
the same note. Of owls, not a specimen was met with anywhere. Partridges 
were very scarce, only half a dozen or so of the ordinary kind being noticed ; but 
at the head of the Tatonduc and Porcupine, ptarmigan were abundant. Wild 
geese and ducks are plentiful in their season, and of ducks there are many more 
species than I have seen in any other part of the territory. Most of these were 
observed on the head of the Porcupine ; but, having no means of preserving the 
skins, I had to come away without specimens. A very beautiful species of loon or 
diver was met with on the Porcupine. It is smaller than the great northern diver, 
but marked much the same on the body, the difference being principally in the head 
and neck — the bill is sharper and finer and the head smaller ; but its chief distin- 
guishing feature is the neck, which is covered with long, beautiful dun-coloured 
down for more than half its length from the head downwards. I tried to kill one 
so as to get the skin as a specimen, but after I had fired three times at close range 
with heavy shot it seemed as lively as if I had not fired at all. I then killed it with 
my rifle, but the bullet so tore and mangled the skin that it was useless. 

With the exception of a small species, locally called the arctic trout, fish are 
not numerous in the district. Schwatka calls this trout the grayling, but from the 
descriptions and drawings of that fish which I have seen this is a different fish. It 
seldom exceeds ten inches in length, and has fins very large for its size, which gave 
it, when in motion, the appearance of having wings. Its dorsal fin is very large, 
being fully half the length of the body, and very high. It is of a brownish gray 
colour on the back and sides, and lighter on the belly. It is found in large num- 
bers in the upper part of the river, especially where the current is swift, and takes 
any kind of bait greedily. The flesh is somewhat soft and not very palatable. 
Lake trout are caught in the lakes, but, as far as I saw, are nor numerous nor of 
large size. They take a troll bait readily, and a few were caught in that way com- 
ing down the lakes, but the largest did not weigh more than six or seven pounds. 
Salmon came up, I was assured by several Indians, natives of the district, as far as 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



79 



Lake Labarge, and are never found above it, but Dr. Dawson reports their dead 
bodies along the river for some miles above the canon. I mention this to show the 
unreliability of information received from the natives, who frequently neither under- 
stand nor are understood. 

On the way down salmon were first seen twenty or twenty- five miles above Five 
Finger Rapids. One can easily trace their passage through the water by the slight 
ripple they make on the surface, and, with care, they can be taken by gently placing 
a scoop net in their way and lifting them out when they enter it. After coming up 
the river two thousand miles they are poor, and would not realize much in the 
market. At the boundary, in the early winter months, the Indians caught some 
that were frozen in on small streams, and fed them to their dogs. Some of these I 
saw ; they were poor and spent. 

I had very little opportunity to learn anything of the language, manners, cus- 
toms or religion of the natives on my way through their country, my time with them 
being so short, and none of the whites whom I met in the district seemed to pos- 
sess any information upon which I could draw. I got a few items, but as they 
may or may not be facts, I shall not report them. The statements of everyone I 
met, however, pretty well establish that by one of their laws inheritance is through 
the mother. 

Since the foregoing was originally written, numerous and important changes 
have occurred in the Yukon District. In those days the administration of law was 
entirely in the hands of the miners themselves, being dispensed by meetings at 
which all curious or interested attended, and all had a vote in the decision or adjust- 
ment. In the main the parties meant well, but often queer views were taken, and it 
might be said that a man who was personally unpopular fared badly, and that, too, 
without the parties who decided feeling that they had gone the least bit astray. 
Nothing else could be expected as this is human nature the world over. 




No. I. 



No. 2. 



From Photo, by IF. Ogilvie. 



Mine Dumps on Claims Nos. I and 2 Eldorado. — Fires burning on No. 2. 



8o 



CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 




From Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 

Wheel on Bonanza Creek to raise water for sluicing. — Skookim Jim, an Indian, 

standing on frame. 

Now the Canadian Government has a properly organized staff of officers resi- 
dent in the country to attend to all matters pertajning to the proper administration 
of justice without favour to any, and we may unhesitatingly take up our abode there, 
looking to as much protection for life and property as in any other part of the 
continent. 

In assurance of this the following statement is made : 



THE GOVERNMENT OF THE YUKON TERRITORY. 

The Government of Canada has defined that portion of the North-west Terri- 
tories, which is to be officially known as "The Yukon Territory," and has provided 
for it an organized government. This Territory is bounded on the south by the 
6oth parallel of latitude, on the east by the watershed between the basins of the 
Yukon and Mackenzie Rivers, and on the west by the 141st meridian west of Green- 
wich or the International Boundary line, and on the north by the waters of the 
Arctic Ocean. 

All south of the 60th parallel of latitude is in the Province of British Columbia, 
except the coast .strip of Alaska, known as " South-eastern Alaska," and law will no 
doubt be administered there by the government of that Province. 

This, of course, differs from the ordinary machinery of Government in Canada, 
but is just what is required at present and for the next few years. 

The chief official is known as the " Commissioner of the Yukon Territory." All 
the Government officials, with the exception of the Judge of the Supreme Court, are 
under his control, and any one of them may be suspended by him for cause. The 
detachment of North-west Mounted Police stationed in the Yukon Territory is under 
his orders, and he is given ample powers to enable him to meet any difficulty that 
may arise, without having to wait for authority from Ottawa. This Officer reports 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 8i 

frequently to the Ministe-r of the Interior, and the Government is thereby kept fully 
informed concerning everything that is transpiring in the Territory. 

There is a Judge for the Territory. That is to say, one of the Judges of the 
Supreme Court of the North-west Territories has been sent to administer the ordi- 
nary laws of Canada and the North-west Territories in the Yukon District. 

A Gold Commtssio?ier has been sent up to the headquarters of the Territory. His 
duties are in relation to the grantmg of mining claims, titles, permits for cutting tim- 
ber on Government lands and the settlement of disputes between conflicting claim- 
ants. He is an officer of the Department of the Interior. 

The Registrar of the " Yukon Lands Registrar District " is a lawyer whose duties 
combine clerkship of the Court and the registration of titles. 

There are four Land Surveyors actmg under the instructions of the Gold Com- 
missioner, and, like him, they are officers of the Department of the Interior. 

There are also a number of Customs Officers stationed at various points along 
the lines of entry into the Yukon Territory, and there is a force of Mounted Police 
at present numbering loo, but will immediately be increased to 250. 

The Mail Service of the Territory is performed at present by the Mounted 
Police. A monthly mail is despatched each way, /. e., .between the Coast and the 
Interior. 

Police Stations are to be established in the Spring on the Stikeen River, on the 
Dalton Trail, at the Junction of the White and Dyea Passes, at Tagish Lake, at the 
White Horse Rapids, at the mouth of the Hootalinqua River, at Selkirk, Dawson 
and Cudahy, and patrols will traverse the country between these points, so law and 
order will be preserved at all points throughout the country where miners may have 
established themselves. 



CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 




From PJioto. bv JV. Ogilvie. 
Sluicing on Bonanza Creek.— Claim No. 2 below Discovery and Showing Mode of 
Washing Gravel. At this Point $8,000 were taken out of a 
Hole 14 Feet Wide and 24 Feet Long. 



MORE RECENT DISCOVERIES. 



-<s$-*-<>^- 



Facts and Information, with Advice, Suggestions, 
Etc., Etc. 



Some of the earliest efforts of mining in tiie Yukon District were made by some 
British Columbia miners who endeavoured to reach the southern part of the Yukon 
watershed from the Cassair District of British Columbia. These efforts were, how- 
ever, not successful from a miner's point of view, nothing came of them. 

In 1873 Mr. Arthur Harper, Frederick Hart, Samuel Wilkinson, George W. Finch, 
and Andrew Kansellar, left British Columbia to prospect the Liard, Mackenzie, 
Porcupine and Yukon. They made their way from Peace River in the vicinity of 
Fort St. John to the head waters of a stream known as the Nelson, an affluent of the 
Liard, down which they went in the winter and early spring months to a point where 
they considered it feasible for canoe navigation. As soon as the river opened they 
started in their dug-out canoes, prospecting as they went, the result of Harper's 
prospecting being, as he summed it up to me, " nothing on the Nelson, prospects on 
the Liard, nothing on the Mackenzie, good prospects on the Peel, some on the 
Porcupine, and prospects everywhere on the Yukon." In the fall they made their 
way from Fort Yukon, at the mouth of the Porcupine, up to White River, about 400 
miles, where they remained during the winter prospecting the White, and the streams 
in its vicinity. Finding nothing sufficient to pay them for their trouble, and provis- 
ions being very scarce, they in the spring returned down the river, making their way 
to .St. Michaels, where some of them entered the service of the Alaska Commercial 
Company, then trading in the Yukon Valley. 

In the fall of 1874 Fort Reliance was erected by Leroy Napoleon McQuesten, 
and the next summer — that is, the summer of 1875 — Harper joined him in partner- 
ship, and they continued to trade in partnership until 1889. Through Harper's cor- 
respondence some British Columbia miners came into the country prospecting, and in 
the early eighties prospecting in that country was begun in earnest, and in the last 
half of that decade a fair amount of success was achieved, especially on the Stewart 
River. The gold found upon these rivers is fine gold and requires the use of mercury 
for its separation from the sand, and although it was found in paying quantities — 
as high as $100 per day being made in some instances — fine gold never satisfied 
the old miners and prospectors. This caused a continuous search for coarse gold, 
and it was found in 1886 on the Fortymile River, about 23^ miles above the mouth, 
or a few hundred yards above the International Boundary Line. This directed the 
attention of the miners in the district of Fortymile, and it continued to be the field of 
prospecting and exploration until 1891, when coarse gold was found on the head of 
Birch Creek, below the International Boundary Line. The existence of coarse gold 
was known in this district as early as 1864, for in a letter dated "Fort Yukon, 2nd 
October, 1864," written by a clerk in the service of the Hudson Bay Company at 
that post, to his father in Ontario, it is stated : — 

" I had some thoughts of digging the gold here, but am not sure about it. I do not think it is in 
paying quantities at the Fort, but if I could only get time to make an expedition up the Yukon, I expect 
we should find it in abundance, but I am always on the voyage or busy at the Fort during the summer, 
and in the winter nothing can be done in the way of gold hunting. I think that next fall, after arriving 
from my trip down the Yukon, I shall be able to go up the river. There is a small river not far 

83 



84 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

from here that the minister, the Revd. McDonald, saw so much gold on a year or two ago, that 
he could have gathered it with a spoon. I have often wished to go but can never find the time. 
Should I find gold in paying quantities I may turn gold digger, but this is merely a last 7-esort, when 
J can do no better.'''' 

It was mainly through the direction of the Canadian Missionary, the Venerable 
Archdeacon McDonald, above mentioned, that this field was opened. 

These two points, Fortymile and Circle City, divided between them the atten- 
tion of all the miners in the country up until 1896, when the discovery of Bonanza 
and Eldorado was made by George W. Carmack through the advice of Robert 
Henderson, an old miner, who had been prospecting on the Indian River and Gold 
Bottom Creek Valleys, and finding Carmack fishing at the mouth of the Klondike 
described to him the riches of Gold Bottom and advised him to try it. Carmack 
did so but was not satisfied, and on his return trip tried the creek known to the 
Indians as Tha-tat-dik, or, in English, Muffler Creek, since named Bonanza by the 
miners. On this, on the claim now known as " Discovery Claim," he found good 
prospects, and staked claims for himself and Indian associates, which led to the 
speedy staking of the whole creek and its branches and gulches. As soon as the 
season permitted these two creeks were thoroughly prospected and developed, and 
found to be so rich that'the term applied to that district, " Klondike," is now known 
over the whole world. Prospecting has gone on in that region to such an extent 
that there are now numerous other creeks known and partially developed there, 
notably. Dominion, Sulphur, and Quartz Creeks, affluents of Indian Creek, which 
flows into the Yukon some 25 or 28 miles above Klondike. Recent reports from 
these creeks confirm their value, and on one of them as high as $9 per pan has been 
found. Of course, that is an exceptionally rich pan, but it appears from the rumours 
which have lately come out that they are rich and extensive — it is alleged being 
some 20 miles each in length. This, I think, may safely be cut in two, as miners' 
miles are generally short. 

Several other creeks have been prospected, flowing directly into the Yukon 
between Klondike and Indian, and rumour says they are good. One creek, known 
as Mooseskin Creek, which flows into the Yukon about i)4 miles below Dawson, is 
reported good. Rumour asserts that from four to six feet in depth of pay dirt has 
been found, but no definite width had then been determined, ranging from eight (8) or 
ten (10) cents per pan to as high as eighty (80) cents. With this depth and richness 
and a reasonable width, say from forty (40) feet upwards, this creek is good enough 
to rank with the best. How much of it is gold bearing is not yet determined. In 
my opinion not more than a few miles at the mouth will be found so. It comes 
out of a range of high limestone mountains which are of such recent geological for- 
mation as to preclude the idea of gold being found in them. Indian Creek is prac- 
tically unexplored as yet. A few miles of the main creek have been prospected and 
gold found in the sand, but with the exception of the three creeks mentioned — Do- 
minion, Sulphur and Quartz — I do not know of any others having been prospected 
which flow into it. It is highly improbable that no more will be found in the valley 
of that stream, and special attention is invited to this creek. 

As we proceed up the Yukon, or Pelly, as named by the late Robert Campbell 
of the Hudson Bay Company's service, other creeks join the Yukon at short inter- 
vals, many of them of considerable extent, and I have no doubt but that they will be 
found to yield much encouragement to the prospector. Last June (1897) Robert 
Henderson, before mentioned, discovered a new creek said to be 40 miles in length, 
which joins the Yukon from the east some 2^ miles below Stewart. For a few days 
there was quite an excitement concerning this creek, gold having been found at sev- 
eral points on it in paying quantities in the surface gravel, but the excitement fell 
almost as suddenly as it arose, and the creek was practically abandoned. Why this 
was I never could learn, as only a few prospectors' holes had been put down when 
the bulk of prospectors abandoned it in disgust, and returned to Dawson. It may 
yet be found well worthy of attention, in fact, many creeks in the district have 
been prospected by two or three dift'erent parties, abandoned, and finally found to be 
good. As an instance of this we may cite Miller Creek on the upper waters of Sixty- 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 85 

Mile. This creek was pretty well prospected by two different parties two different 
seasons, and abandoned. The third part)?-, however, struck pay, and it proved to be 
the richest creek known in that country until the discovery of Bonanza and Eldo- 
rado, so that from this we may predict some hope for Henderson Creek yet. 

Stewart River itself is a stream from 100 to 200 yards in Avidth, and it is said 
about 400 miles in length. Its affluents will aggregate as much more, say 800 miles, 
or in round numbers say 1,000 miles. The smaller streams and gulches will aggre- 
gate possibly as much more, say 2,000. Now the Stewart River enjoys the reputa- 
tion among the old hands in the district of being the best paying dirt in the country. 
When it was first mined on, many miners took from $30 to $100 per day out of the 
bars along the river, by ordinary rockers, and since that time prospectors never failed 
to find what is called a grub stake, that is, sufficient to purchase provisions, clothing, 
and other necessaries for one year, on its bars. They are cleaned off from year to 
year, and the wash of the river seems to renew the deposit of gold. Now this gold 
must come from somewhere, and prospecting never yet revealed from where. Special 
attention is directed to this stream as being one of the largest and most promising 
fields in that district. 

Little prospecting has been done on the Pelly River, and not much success has 
attended what has been done, which may partl}^ be attributed to the fact that little 
or no bedrock work was done. The few who tried it appear to have done only sur- 
face prospecting. 

This river and its affluents will likely furnish as much, if not more, stream and 
gulch than Stewart River, and while it cannot be asserted that the prospects on it are 
as favorably reported on as those of the Stewart, it can be said that much less atten- 
tion has been bestowed on them. 

There is no reason why the branches and gulches of this river system should 
not yield in parts good pay, as it lies in the gold bearing zone running through and 
from British Columbia to the i4TSt meridian. 




Mouth of Fortymile River. 



From Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 



86 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

A small creek flowing into the Yukon or Lewes from the west or left side a 
few miles above the mouth of the Pelly, has been worked by several old timers for 
the last three or four years, with a fair amount of success. Another stream, join- 
ing the Lewes or Pelly about 30 miles below the mouth of the Pelly, good prospects 
are reported on, but how authentic these reports are cannot at present be said. 
Last summer newspaper reports aroused much excitement concerning the Pelly, 
and the enormous finds which it was alleged had been made there ; in fact, one find 
was fabulous in its richness, but these do not appear to be more than newspaper 
reports. 

The Teslin, or Hootalinqua of the miners, some 200' miles farther up, in 1886 
and 1887, was worked on and good pay found on the bars all along it. Just south 
of the head of this stream is the Cassair District of British Columbia, in which rich 
finds were made many years ago, and which old miners to-day assert is one of the 
best districts in America, were there better facilities for food supply. During 
1885, 1886 and 1887, much mining was done on the Yukon River itself on the bars 
and banks along it. This extended from a few miles below the Teslin down to near 
the Pelly. One bar on the river, called Cassair Bar, near the Big Salmon River, 
was worked in 1886, and was so rich that four men cleaned up $6,000 in thirty days. 
Others came along after this party had left and took away more. The original 
party re-worked it in 1887, and took off $10 per man per day. Many of the bank 
claims yielded good pay too, and all furnished fair wages. The discovery of coarse 
gold for the time stopped all attempts to further develop those bar and bank 
diggings on the main river, but there cannot be any doubt that they will yet be 
profitably worked. 

On the head waters of the Lewes silver has been found and some gold, but as 
the attention of most of the miners entering the country was directed to points 
further down, very little prospecting has been done here. I have seen several 
specimens of silver bearing ore which it is alleged came from this part of the 
country, and one old Californian in 1894 assured me he had found, in the vicinity of 
Tagish Lake, one of the richest silver bearing veins he ever heard of. That there 
was some truth in this assertion I do not doubt, as he showed me specimens of 
the ore. 

On the head waters of the Alsek River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean 
between Lituya and Yakutat Bays, gold was found in 1896, but the party finding it 
was not prospecting ; the find was due to an accident. He was crossing the river 
on horseback, his horse stumbled, threw him into the water, which was icy cold. 
He made his way as quickly as possible to the shore, and in climbing out grasped a 
small tree which came away by the roots. In the dirt which came with it he saw 
some yellow stuff which he picked up and found to be gold. This he preserved and 
exhibited to me at Cudahy, a few months later. He had something like $1 in coarse 
gold, which he found at this spot. 

Midway on what is now known as the Dalton Trail, between the suipmit of 
the Coast Range and Selkirk, fine gold has also been found in the small streams 
which that trail crosses. This find also was not the result of any organized Siearch, 
but entirely due to accident. 

With these facts before us we may confidently assert that we have here a region 
situated in the North-west Territories upwards of 300 miles in length and 500 or 
more miles wide, along the southern boundary, for this zone extends south-eastwards 
into British Columbia, and we may reasonably assume westward to and across the 
141st meridian, for some of the streams heading on and near it, discharging into the 
Pacific Ocean west of Mount St. Elias, yield gold on their lower stretches, and we 
may reasonably assume the upper parts are gold bearing, too. Farther inland gold 
has been found on the upper waters of the Tanana, near the head waters of the 
Fortymile, and in 1873 and 1874 Harper and Harte found some gold on the south 
branch of White River, in the vicinity of the boundary line, all of which is a justi- 
fication for this assumption. Thus we may conclude with reason that all that 
portion of the North-west Territory westward from the easterly limit of the Yukon 
water system to the 141st meridian, will prove more or less gold bearing. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



87 




88 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

The westerly boundary of this region — the 141st meridian, or International 
Boundary — is upwards of 300 miles in length ; the southern boundary — the 60th 
parallel of latitude — is about 500 miles long, and the north-east boundary, an 
irregular line from the 60th parallel to the 141st meridian, in latitude 65" approxi- 
mately, is upwards of 600 miles long. These three lines bound an area of about 
125,000 square miles, over which gold is scattered more or less profusely. 

At many of the points mentioned it will pay well for working even under present 
conditions, and at many others it will pay well when we have such facilities as we 
expect to have during the next year for entering and developing that region. Atten- 
tion may be directed to the fact that the whole of that vast District owes its now world- 
wide reputation to the richness of 140 claims in the Klondike Division. 100 of these 
are on Bonanza Creek, and about 40 on Eldorado. To use a mining term, many of 
those claims are "world-beaters," and if the indications now known are worth any- 
thing at all they are worth from sixty to seventy millions of dollars in those two creeks. 

Taking this division as a whole, including the three creeks named, affluent to 
Indian Creek, a district some 35 miles in length and 25 or more miles in width, if 
the indications can be relied on, there are one hundred million dollars in sight in 
that area. No one can guarantee this amount, but the prospects so far developed 
point to that sum pretty conclusively. This district is exceptionally rich. Noth- 
ing has ever been found like it heretofore in that country, in fact, in very few 
countries has anything been found like it, and while we cannot confidently assert 
that other finds as valuable as it will be made, it is altogether improbable that gold 
is scattered over such a vast extent, and only rich at a point which is less than the 
140th part of the total area. If we add to this part of the northern area of British 
Columbia we increase it nearly two-fold, and the comparative area of the Klondike 
District is much lessened ! 

Taken all together we have a vast field with fair prospects, as fair it may be 
claimed as any other equally extensive region in the world. The natural conditions 
are not as favorable as in many other parts, but time and enterprise will no doubt 
agreeably modify many of them, and the reward may be great. 

OTHER MINERALS FOUND IN THE YUKON DISTRICT. 

Pieces of native copper have from time to time been brought in from the White 
River region by Indians. It is asserted by them that they found the copper on that 
stream. Possibly this is so, but it is yet undetermined. However, copper is being 
found on the head of Copper River in that vicinity, and these two streams head in 
the same area and it is probable that the Indians are correct. Mineral bearing lodes 
found in the vicinity of the mouth of the Klondike show traces of copper. On the 
Fortymile a few miles above the mouth there are some seams of lead ore or galena, 
containing silver ; as high as 36^ ounces to the ton of 2,000 pounds has been 
assayed from it. Low grade specimens of asbestos have been found in the vicinity 
of Cudahy in an exposure of serpentine rock there. Commercially it is worth 
nothing, but shows that mineral exists in the country and may yet be found of 
commercial value. Iron has not yet been found in place, but one may infer from 
the abundance of black sand, as the miners term it — that is, magnetic iron ore 
ground to powder — in the gold-bearing streams that it will yet be found in place in 
some part of the country. In Hunker Creek it is exceedingly abundant and very 
coarse, almost as coarse as fine gravel. Coal abounds in the country. A short 
distance above the Five Fingers Rapids several small coal seams crop out. They 
are close together, and although the seams are thin individually, collectively they 
may yet be worked with profit. Specimens of this coal were assayed in Ottawa by 
the Chemist of the Geological Survey Branch of the Department, with the following 
results : 

Hygroscopic water, 6.03 

Volatile combustible matter, 36.92 

Fixed carbon, 49.03 

Ash, . . „ , 8.02 



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NORTH WESTERN CANADA 



Secfi-on. 1 




SCALE OF statute: miles 



/HORTH WESTERN CANADA 



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SCALE or STATUTE MILES 



NORTH WESTERN CANADA 



Sectton 3 




SCALE OF STATUTE MILES 



NORTH WESTERN CANADA 



Section 4 




5CaiE Of STATuTt Miles 



NORTH WESTRN CANADA 



■Se-olflor L 




SCALE OF st/»t(/te: miles 



NORTH WESTERN CANADA 



Sett ton 6 




SCALE OF STATUTE MILES 



NORTH WESTERN CANADA. 



Section 7. 




THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



89 



On Coal Creek, which joins the Yukon about four miles below Cudahy, exten- 
sive coal seams have been found and located. On a small creek named Cliff 
Creek, which joins some five or six miles below this, another extensive seam has 
been found and located. Coal is found in the drift in the streams between those and 
on another creek known as Flat Creek, below Cliff Creek. On Twelve Mile and 
Fifteen Mile Creeks — so named because they were supposed to be that distance 




Gold-Bearing Lode^ — Cone Hill. 



From Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 



below Fort Reliance — coal is also found, some six or eight miles from the Yukon 
River. Coal is reported at the head of the Klondike, and the report was accompanied 
by specirnens of the mineral. I have heard it stated that coal is also seen in the 
drift of some of the upper streams of the Stewart River, the inference being that 
there is a continuous coal bearing strata running from the Yukon River in the 
vicinity of the Boundary Line south-eastwards through British Columbia, and pos- 
sibly through that Province into the North-west Territories. Specimens of the 
coal from Coal Creek and Cliff Creek were sent out for assay, and the Geological 
Survey Chemist reports on it as follows : 

" The material at the time of its receipt was found to be completely disinte- 
grated. It had evidently lost a certain proportion of the hygroscopic water originally 
contained in it ; hence the following analysis must be considered as more nearly 
representing the composition of the fuel in an air-dried condition than as it occurs in 
its native state. 

" Approximate analysis by fast coking of selected material gave : 

Hygroscopic water, 7-24 

Volatile combustible matter, 4i-75 * 

Fixed carbon, 48.91 

Ash (brownish yellow), 2.40 

100.00 



90 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

" It yielded by slow coking a non-coherent coke, by fast coking a slightly fritted 
coke. 

"The results of the examination of the fuel led to the inference that the ma- 
terials of the seam in question represented a lignite of superior quality." 

These coals are all of the same quality. So far as I know no good cooking 
coal has yet been found in that country. One thing will be noticed in connection 
with the Coal Creek coal is the remarkably low percentage of ash that it yields. 
No specimens yet tried, as far as I know, gave more than 5^, and some of it went 
below \<fc. 

Approximate tests made with some of the surface coal from Coal Creek deter- 
mined a ton of it, 2,000 pounds, to be equal to about 2^ cords of the spruce wood 
generally used as fuel in that region. A good sample of the coal would probably 
be equal to 3 cords. A cord of this wood will weigh nearly a ton and a half. 
For steamboat use this coal possesses a tremendous advantage both in space and 
weight. 

The existence of silver I have previously mentioned on the upper stretches of 
the Lewes and its affluents. 

Should lime be required in the reduction of ores or for building purposes, it 
will be found in abundance on Coal Creek, quite convenient to the Yukon River, 
as that stream pierces a range of cretaceous mountains, to which I have already 
referred. 

HINTS ON PROSPECTING. 

Having found a creek which we determine to prospect, we search for some sharp 
angle in it where the creek runs obliquely against a steep bank. In a place like this 
you are more apt to find gold than in other places in the creek valley. True, it is 
only found on the surface and may be no indication of what is to be found below, 
for the gold found on the surface may have come from the hillside drift, the clay 
and sand which came with it being washed away by the creek waters ; but you will 
sooner determine the fact whether or not there is gold in the valley at a point like 
this. Having satisfied ourselves that there is gold in sufficient quantity to warrant 
further prospecting, you now take the risk of sinking a " hole," as it is termed, to 
bed rock. The most convenient season to do this is early in the winter when the 
surface water is all frozen, otherwise it will interfere with your progress by flowing 
into your pit and putting out your fires, or at least preventing their most efficient 
action. If you cannot wait for this season choose some high spot where you will 
not likely be bothered with inflow of water. You will have a few feet more digging 
to do to bed rock, but you are more certain of reaching it. If you want to sink 
where the best pay is likely to be found, try just below the junction of some 
creek, gulch, or ravine with the main stream or valley. The heavier parts from both 
streams are held here. Experience shows that the best claims are generally just be- 
low a "forks," as it is termed. Having reached bed rock you may find pay, or you 
may not. If you think the surface prospects warrant you in extending your opera- 
tions, select some other point in the creek valley and sink a hole to bed rock again. 
Continue in this way until the character of that part of the valley is determined, but 
it may be that you will "cross-cut " the whole valley, as it is termed, and find noth- 
ing ; yet, this does not warrant you in assuming that there is nothing in that creek. 
I have known places where this was done without anything being found, and yet a 
few yards above or below a single hole found rich pay. 

To work the claim properly, if the gravel is deep, it is necessary to do this by 
what is termed burning, that is, you thaw the frozen ground out with fire. This is a 
tedious and costly process and requires much more labor in procuring the wood and 
attending to the fires, disposing of the waste dirt, as it is called, that is, the non- 
paying dirt, than that connected with the actual paying dirt. Several schemes are 
ni3w under way with a view to obviating these hindrances to mining in that country. 
Proposals to thaw out by steam are being tested, also by coal oil. This latter, if it 
can be perfected will be much the cheapest and most effective, as coal oil can be 
purchased in that country for about $1 per gallon, and later on, no doubt, much less. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



91 



One scheme which has been proposed to me, it is asserted, will thaw one cubic yard 
of dirt with less than one gallon of coal oil. This, if successful, will certainly be a 
cheap and expeditious way of mining in that country. I am not in a position at present 
to give the details of this method, as it is only in the embryo state, but the results 
so far are encouraging. 

Some of the proposed methods by steam appear practicable when used on a 
large scale ; but, so far, it appears it does not realize expectations on a small scale, 
but this will no doubt be overcome by experiment. 

I cannot advertise any particular scheme proposed as against any other, but 
have no doubt each exponent of any method will soon advertise it himself. My object 
is simply to call attention to the fact that some method other than firing as it is now 
used is speedily necessary. In places where the ground is shallow — that is, not more 
than 10 feet deep — what is called ground sluicing is resorted to. A ditch is dug 
through the claim, a dam constructed in the upper end of it, and the water is direc- 
ted through the ditch. The water soon wears away the ice-bound dirt down to the 
bed of gravel below. The heat of the sun melts the frozen dirt on the sides of the 
ditch, and it is thrown into the stream and carried down and away from the claim. 
In this way a part of the claim, 25 or 30 feet in width, is cleaned down to the gravel ; 
sluice boxes are then erected and the gravel is shoveled into them, and any gold 
which it may contain is retained by the ripple bar in the boxes, while the gravel and 




t Boundary From Photo, by IV. Cgilvie. 

At the Crossing of the International Boundary and the South Bank of Moose Creek.— 

International Boundary appears as a White Streak through the Woods. — White 

Summit in' Centre is "The Dome." 



sand are by the force of the current of water carried onwards and down to the tail- 
ings at the end of the line of sluice boxes. When bed rock is reached on this line 
another portion of the gravel is stripped of the muck and washed in the same way. 
It is evident that when the muck and gravel are too deep this method is impractic- 



92 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

able, in which case the pay streak has to be " drifted " out by burning, which is done 
as follows : — 

A hole is cut in the surface moss and debris down to solid ground. In this 
hole, which should be about 3 feet wide and 6 feet long, a fire is made, and when the 
fire has gone out the ashes and ground which it has thawed are thrown out ; another 
fire is built, and the process repeated until bed rock is reached. The average rate 
of descent is about one foot per day. Bed rock reached, we now drift sideways — 
that is, we build our fire against the side of the hole or shaft which we consider the 
best pay will be found on, and proceed as when sinking the shaft, moving about one 
foot per day, as before stated. The fire will thaw out much more dirt than there is 
pay in, unless our pay streak is very deep, and we have carefully to separate the pay 
from the non-pay dirt, and hoist out only the pay dirt. 

When we reach a distance of 20 to 30 feet from our shaft we have to put down 
another, and continue from it as before. 

The greater part of the heat from our fire does us no good used in this way, 
and it is most desirable that some other method of thawing be developed as soon 
as possible. 

As to the quantity that will pay, it is considered that 10 cents to the pan with 
three or four feet of dirt is excellent pay. Less, of course, pays in a less degree and 
more in a greater, but that is considered good pay in that country even under pres- 
ent conditions. A little experience will soon enable one to determine just how much 
there is in a pan. To the uninitiated 10 cents to the pan looks little more than a 
few specks of gold in one corner of the bottom, except in the case of flake gold, 
which may be so thin that a cent's worth of it will apparently cover the whole bot- 
tom of the pan, and the beginner will think he has struck something very rich. A 
little water poured into the pan soon shows us the difference between flake gold and 
coarse, though it may not be apparent to the eye. The flake rises in the agitated 
water and sinks slowly, which, of course, heavier gold will not do. 

The lumber for sluice boxes, by which the gravel is washed as before described, 
has to be whip sawed. This involves a lot of tedious, difficult work. The only mill 
in the country was too much taken up with sawing lumber for building purposes to 
devote any attention to sluice box lumber. Hereafter saw mills may be more con- 
venient. Sluice boxes require carefully-selected lumber, as free as possible from 
knots or knot holes. This, of course, those who go mining will soon ascertain for 
themselves and also quickly learn the best way to get over these difficulties. 

Hillside prospecting has, been resorted to already there and some fair claims 
found. This is conducted on the same principles as gulch prospecting, with the dif- 
ference that there is much less depth of dirt on the hillside as a rule than in the bot- 
tom of a gulch. It is well to bear in mind that hillside claims are inconvenient to 
work ; the water has either to be brought down along the hillside from a high level 
on the creek, which may necessitate a very long ditch. The working of them will 
be sure to conflict with the working of the gulch claims, and their location until after 
the gulch or creek claims are worked out is not desirable. 

Quartz prospecting has been prosecuted to a very limited extent in that coun- 
try, but that little has revealed that there are a great many lodes of low grade gold- 
bearing rock there, some of it too low to be considered at all in connection with 
milling for some time to come. Time, no doubt, will develop improved means and 
methods of meeting and combating the peculiar conditions existing there, and ren- 
dering profitable the most of this rock. The hillsides, for a height of about 1,000 
feet above water level, are thickly covered with an undergrowth of scrub and moss. 
This practically precludes attempts at prospecting for quartz except in a few iso- 
lated spots. The mountain tops themselves, or the crests of the ridges, are bare of 
timber, but are covered with a sub-arctic moss which almost completely conceals the 
character of the rock. This, of course, is easily gotten over by smashing a few 
specimens here and there with a hammer, but prospecting for quartz in this way, to 
be prosecuted successfully, requires much more geological knowledge and technical 
training than the vast majority of the miners are possessed of, besides a keenness of 
observation that is rather rare. I think a small diamond drill plant would be about 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



93 




Police Barracks, Cudahy. 



From Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 



the most effective and satisfactory way of prospectino^ for gold-bearing rock. It 
could readily be used, no matter what the surface was like. I have often thought 
that some sort of a modification of it would be more convenient for prospecting for 
placer gold than the present method of burning down. By the time a few quartz 
mills are established there will no doubt be very many extensive and valuable quartz 
lodes discovered ; as it is highly improbable that all the gold-bearing rock has been 
weathered or ground down, depositing its gold in the gulches, much of it must yet 
remain in the hills and mountains of the region of the diggings. The only question 
being, is it concentrated enough to pay for working, or scattered about in thin 
stringers, as the miners term it, at such distances apart as to preclude any idea of 
mining enterprise in that direction. Attention is called to the fact that many of the; 
lodes found, and doubtless many to be found, are so situated that water is practically 
not available during six or seven months of the year. The small streams all freeze 
solid and remain so from November until May, and maybe longer. This will neces- 
sitate some other method of milling than the old one of pounding the rock in a box 
filled with water, and those contemplating quartz mining will do well to take this 
question into consideration. 

A few remarks on the value of gold found in that country will not be out of, 
place here. As a rule it ranges in "fineness," technically termed, from .723 to .875, 
that is, from about $15 per ounce, Troy weight, after melting, to about $18 per 
ounce, Troy weight, after melting. Before melting, and thus cleaned of the sand 
and quartz associated with it, the value per Troy ounce runs from fourteen dollars 
and ninety-two cents ($14.92) to seventeen dollars and ten cents ($17.10) on 
Bonanza and Eldorado, and as high as seventeen dollars and sixty-four ($17.64) in 
other places. The value of pure gold is twenty dollars and sixty-seven ($20.67) P^i^ 
ounce, Troy weight. The other part of the metal as it is mined is principally silver 
and copper. The low quality of Bonanza and Eldorado is more than compensated 
for by its quantity. 



94 



CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 



While prospecting the miner had better take a geologist's hammer with him. It 
is small and devised specially for that purpose. He also requires a shovel and a 
pick. As to food, bedding, Sic, his own judgment will have to decide for him what 
he considers necessary. One thing he must guard against during the summer 
months are the mosquitoes, which plague the life out of anyone and everyone in the 
country for at least three months. During the evenings the temperature sometimes 
goes low enough to render them torpid for a short time, but when the weather is at 
all cloudy they are a continual torment, and a good supply of mosquito netting 
should be laid in. For this purpose the ordinary mosquito netting on sale is too 
coarse in the mesh, and I would recommend fine silk tissue. It excludes all flies, 
however, large or small, is not hurtful to the eyes as the coarser mosquito netting is, 
does not give one that sense of suffocation which mosquito netting generally does, 
and lasts much longer. A good pair of gum boots are actually necessary while 
prospecting. Much of the lower ground is swampy valley, with ice-cold water in it ; 
and it is necessary to warmly clothe the feet ; the other part of the body only 
requires protection from the mosquitoes. As to food, one has very often just to put 
up with what one can get there, which very often is not very varied, consisting prin- 
cipally of pork, bacon, beans, flour and tea. Later on, I will give some information 
as to the quality and kinds of food required and the amounts to be taken. 

As to lumber, the only lumber of any value found in that region is scattered 
along the bottoms of the river valleys and streams. A few hundred feet up on the 
hillsides timber diminishes in size. The cause of this is that the ground is eternally 
frozen, being covered with a thick deposit of moss to a depth of two or more feet, 
and immediately under this the ice can be found at any time in the year. Now, 
trees growing on this naturally grow slowly. The season during which they grow is 
very short, being only three or four months, and the temperature in which they grow 
is extremely low. These causes combined produce trees not more than three inches 
in diameter, nearly two centuries old. The trees immediately adjacent to the banks 
of the streams and on islands often attain a diameter of fifteen or eighteen inches, 




Rock Cliff on Glacier Creek, Tributary to Fortymile River, Alaska. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 95 

but a few hundred feet away trees just the same age are not more than three or four 
inches in diameter. This is due to the warmth of the water in the streams, and the 
opening of the bed of the stream permitting more direct access of sunHght and heat 
to the surface near it. Even under those conditions suitable sluice-box lumber is 
widely scattered, and generally found in sheltered nooks in the valleys, facing the south. 
The best place to look for sluice-box lumber is in some deep gulch running in the 
direction of the meridian sun. Those searching for lumber had better confine their 
efforts to such gulches, as those facing the north yield nothing but scrub such as I 
have described. 



ROUTES. 

I will now give a short outline sketch of the different routes proposed from the 
eastern and southern portion of this continent to that country. 

PRINCE ALBERT ROUTE. 

The first route to be noticed is the one starting from Prince Albert, Saskatch- 
ewan, or, we will say, generally, from the Saskatchewan District, following the old 
Hudson Bay Company's route via Green Lake, Beaver River, Lake Isle a la Crosse, 
Portage la Losche, and Clearwater River to Fort McMurray, at the foot of the rapids 
on the Athabasca River, whence the route is common to the next one to be de- 
scribed. I have no personal knowledge of this route, but the following, quoted from 
the Saskatchewan Times of December 21, 1897, may be of interest in connection 
with it. I may state that Prince Albert has railway communication with the Cana- 
dian Pacific Railway at Regina. 

" Prince Albert to Green Lake by good wagon road, 140 miles. 

"Green Lake to Portage la Losche, 220 miles by boats. 

"Passing Portage la Losche (good road), 12 miles. 

" Descending Clearwater River,. 80 miles. Total, 450 miles by boats. 

" It will be seen that this route, after traversing Green Lake, follows the course 
of Beaver River to Isle a la Crosse.; then through Deep River and Clear Lake, 
Buffalo Lake, and Methy River and Lake to Portage la Losche. This portage is 12 
miles in length, but presents no great difficulty to the transport of boats, etc., the 
road being good and draft animals procurable. From this portage the course of the 
Clearwater River is followed without interruption, except for one or two insignificant 
portages, to its junction with the Athabasca near Fort McMurray." 

THE EDMONTON ROUTE. 

The next route in order is the Edmonton Route, down the Mackenzie to Fort 
McPherson, thence to Dawson as follows : Leaving Edmonton, to which we get by 
railway, we have to make our way by cart or buckboard some 96 miles to Athabasca 
Landing. 

From Athabasca Landing down stream the Athabasca River is free of hindrance 
to navigation for about 120 miles, when we reach Pelican Rapids. These are not 
difficult to navigate ; the only trouble in them arises from low water and some rocks 
in the channel. When the water is high there is no danger at all. It appears they 
take their name from the presence of pelican in or about them nearly all summer ; 
both times I went down the river I saw them there. A fair-sized canoe can be run 
down those rapids with safety. 



96 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

One hundred and sixty-five miles below the landing Grand Rapids are reached. 
This is the rapid of the river, and partakes more of the nature of a cataract than of 
a rapid. In the middle of the channel there is an island, over which the Hudson 
Bay Company have constructed a tramway on which to transport the outfits for all 
the northern posts. The steamboat landing is about one and a half miles above the 
island, the intervening water very shallow, with many rocks and very rapid current. 
Through this the company has made a channel by removing rocks. Between this 
steamboat landing and Fort McMurray the company does all its transport with large 
boats, locally known as sturgeon nosed or sturgeon boats, from the fact that both 
bow and stern are spoon-shaped and somewhat resemble a sturgeon's nose. 
These boats are capable of floating about ten tons each, and are each manned 
with a crew of ten or twelve men, and when loaded draw upwards of two feet of 
water. The time of their ascent and descent varies much with the height of water, 
as in some of the rapids more or less portaging has to be done, which varies with 
the depth of water. Below the island in Grand Rapids there is nearly two miles of 
rough water, which in low water requires much care in navigating to avoid rocks 
and shallows. 

Between Grand Rapids and Fort McMurray there are ten rapids. I obtained 
from the pilot of the steamboat (a man who was acknowledged by all I inquired of 
to possess as complete and reliable knowledge of the river from the Landing to Lake 
Athabasca as any man in the country) the names of those rapids and the best way to 
run down them. 

The first in the order of descent is named "Brule Rapids." It is about 25 miles 
below Grand Rapids. In it the river spreads out from 250 or 300 yards in width to 
upwards of 400. In mid-stream the water is shallow, so much so that large trees 
ground on their way down. The channel is on the left side of the river, and quite 
close to the shore. It is not more than one-fourth of a mile long, and by keeping 
not more than twenty or thirty yards from the shore there is no danger in its descent. 
It appears the rapid takes its name from the presence of an extensive brule. About 
sixteen miles below it comes "Boiler Rapids." This is quite an extensive rapid 
though only the lower part of it is very rough. In high water the left side affords 
the safest channel to run in, and in low water the right side. It takes its name from 
the fact that the boiler intended for the Hudson's Bay Company's steamer on the 
lower river was lost in the rapid through the wrecking of the scow which contained 
it on its way through in 1882. At the foot of this rapid there is much rough water, 
which requires a good-sized canoe for its safe descent. 

In sight of the lower end of the above comes " Drowned Rapids." The channel 
here is on the left side, quite close to the shore, and were it not for three or four large 
swells caused by rocks, it might be run down by anyone without any apprehension of 
danger. It takes its name from the fact that a man named Thompson was drowned 
some years ago by the swamping of his canoe in running through it. I had the mis- 
fortune, in 1884, to lose a member of my party in a similar manner, though I have 
gone through them myself twice, and ran no risk that I was aware of. Less than a 
mile from this rapid we enter " Middle Rapid." This is not very rough, but is some- 
what shallow and stony. The channel in this is on the right side. 

The next rapid is known as " Long Rapid," and the channel here is also on the 
right side. The water is not very rough in it. 

Next in succession is "Crooked Rapid," from the fact that in it the river makes 
a very short turn round a limestone point. The channel is on the right side, and is 
not rough, with the exception of a small " chute " just at the head ; this requires care 
in a canoe. 

" Stony Rapids " come next ; in them the channel is on the right side, and is not 
very rough. 

The next is appropriately known as the " Cascade," the river falling over a 
ledge of rock about three feet high. The channel is on the left side, and certain 
stages of water permit fair-sized canoes to descend it without much risk. 

The last rapid worthy of note is known as " Mountain Rapid," by reason of the 
high banks in its vicinity. It is rather rough, but there is a good channel which at 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



97 




View from Boundary Line, Looking Down Bed Rock Creek to Sixtymile River. 



the head is on the left side, in the middle there is a piece of smooth water through 
which a crossing is made to the right side, which is quite smooth, while the left side 
is very rough. 

The last of the series is known as " Moberly Rapid." It is only a ripple caused 
by some rocks on the left side of the river, in the midst of a swift current. On the 
right side the water is smooth enough for the passage of the smallest craft. 

From the head of Grand Rapids to Fort McMurray is upwards of 85 miles, 
which is altogether too bad for the present steamer to ascend. It is the opinion of 
some that with proper appliances she might succeed in doing so, but "it appears to me 
that such a project would involve much expensive labour and considerable risk. 

From McMurray to Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca, a distance of about 
180 miles by the shortest channels, but nearly 200 by the channel the steamboat has 
to pass through in ordinary stages of water, there is neither obstacle nor hindrance 
to its passage. This steamer also makes her way up Peace River as far as the fall, 
about 220 miles from Chipewyan, the only hindrance in this distance being the 
Little Rapid, about 100 miles from Chipewyan, and even this, except in very low 
water, is not serious. 

From Chipewyan to Smith's Landing on Great Slave River there are no serious 
obstacles to navigation. There is a slight ripple in the channel between the lake and 
Great Slave River, caused by a ledge of rock across the outlet of the lake, and in 
low water the steamer sometimes touches bottom, but never so much as to detain her 
for any long period. In Great Slave River there are one or two places where rock 
ledges cause a ripple, and in low water the greater part of the channel is shallow, 
but in all these places there is a part where the water is deep enough to afford the 
steamer easy passage at all times. 

From Smith's Landing to Fort Smith, about fourteen miles by the land or 
portage route and about sixteen by the river, there are numerous and bad rapids 



98 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

aggregating about 240 feet fall, which puts all thought of navigating it out of the 
question. 

In continuing the statement of my route I may as well conjoin with it such 
information as I observed and gathered on my way concerning the navigability 
of the water route from Fort Smith to the Arctic Ocean and part of Great Slave 
Lake. 

On my arrival at Fort Smith I found the Hudson Bay Company's steamer 
"Wrigley" there loading for her down trip. I arrived there on the afternoon of the 
30th July, and spent the greater part of that night getting observations to determine 
its geographical position. The following evening the " Wrigley" started for Fort 
Resolution on Great Slave Lake, and on the way down I obtained much information 
of value from Captain Bell, commander of the steamer, concerning the depths of water 
and obstacles in the route. To render this information more intelligible I will premise 
with a short description of the " Wrigley " and the route she travels over. This 
steamer was built at Fort Smith by the Hudson Bay Company in 1886, and made her 
first trip in 1887. The magnitude of such an undertaking, small as she is, can be 
appreciated when we know that every bit of lumber used in her construction had to 
be sawn by hand. All her machinery had to be transported upwards of 100 miles by 
horses over pretty bad roads, and then taken nearly 300 miles in scows, and 300 on 
the Company's steamer "Grahame." Her dimensions as given me by Captain Bell 
are eighty feet keel, fourteen feet beam, five to six feet draught at stern when loaded 
and four to five at bow. Her propeller is a four-and-a-half feet four-bladed screw 
with adjustable blades. Her engine, manufactured by the John Doty Engine Co. of 
Toronto, with about 60 pounds pressure, will drive her about eight miles an hour, 
but she can be driven ten. In the course of a season the requirements of the Com- 
pany's service necessitate her travelling about 6,500 miles, and her maximum load is 
about thirty tons. In this connection I will here state that the two steamers plying 
on the Athabasca. Peace and Great Slave Rivers are named respectively " Grahame " 
and " Athabasca " (the latter above Grand Rapids on the Athabasca and on lesser 
Slave Rivers) are flat-bottomed stern wheelers capable of carrying one hundred and 
forty tons if required ; with this load I was told they would draw two-and-a-half to 
three feet of water. Loaded light they draw less than two feet. They are said to 
be capable of steaming twelve miles an hour in dead water, but do not try more than 
ten. The "Grahame" was built at Fort Chipeweyan in 1882 and 1883, and as in 
the case of the "Wrigley" all the lumber for her had to be sawn by hand. The 
"Athabasca " was built at Athabasca Landing, but in her construction the aid of a 
Waterous portable saw-mill was obtained. 

Going down the Great Slave River, Capt. Bell kindly pointed out to me the 
shallow places, and gave me the depths of water in each of them. Just below Fort 
Smith there is an extensive bar, but there is a channel through it which always 
affords plenty of water for the passage of the " Wrigley." The shallowest place in 
the river is alongside an island known as " Big Islanc^." The lowest water Capt. 
Bell ever experienced in the country, which, by the way, is generally admitted to 
have been unusually low, gave six feet here ; in average water there is nine feet, 
and at date of my passage (ist August) there was thirteen feet. This shoal is 
about 200 yards across, and is on the left side of the island. The other channel 
is much the widest, but is full of sand bars, and unless in very high water the 
" Wrigley " could not get through it. Capt. Bell found in all the other parts of the 
river from twelve to thirty-six feet of water at average height. As is usual in all 
such places, there are bars across all the mouths where they empty into the lake. 
On the one through which the steamer enters the lake there is in very low water 
five and a half feet and in high water eight ; medium gives from six to seven, but 
this varies a good deal with the force and direction of the wind — a south-westerly 
wind lowering it and north-easterly raising it. Owing to the displacement of the 
channel marks by a violent storm a few days before our arrival, the boat ran 
aground on the bar, with no other result than a couple of hours' detention. 

Capt. Bell informed me that in his passages around and across the Great Slave 
Lake he has done much sounding, and found generally as follows : Two miles 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



99 



from shore four fathoms, six miles 
twenty fathoms. In mid-lake on the 
way from the mouth of the Great Slave 
River to the head of Mackenzie River 
he generally found upwards of forty 
fathoms, and in places sixty fathoms 
gave no bottom. In the arm of the 
lake on which Fort Rae is situated he 
found fifty miles below Rae twenty 
fathoms, thirty miles from Rae three 
fathoms, eighteen miles two fathoms, 
and seven miles seven feet, which 
continues up to Rae. The bottom in 
this arm he found muddy, with many 
boulders in it. 

At the entrance to the river from 
the lake, the river is very wide and con- 
sequently shallow. Search was made 
here for a suitable channel for the 
steamer, and of course the notes fur- 
nished refer exclusively to this channel. 
In ordinary low water this channel af- 
fords about six feet, in very low water 
only five feet. In ordinary high water, 
such as when I passed, there would be 
about nine feet, but in 1888 there must 
have been thirteen or fourteen feet. 
Capt. Bell thinks this shoal is the re- 
sult of ice shoves by the ice on the 




Fro77L Photo, by IV. Ogilvie. 
Inspector Strickland's Boy, at Cudahy, 1895. 




Ora Wold, Born at Fortymile, November, 1S95. 



lake, as quite close to it on both sides 
there is twelve to fourteen feet of 
water. It consists of gravel, and is, he 
says, only about two hundred yards 
across, so that improving it would not 
be a very difficult undertaking. 

Five miles below this there is 
another shoal known as " Trout Island 
Shoal." On this in low water there 
is six feet of water, but it appears the 
depth is very irregular, which Capt. 
Bell thinks is due to the bottom being 
scraped by ice and deposited in heaps. 
He thinks a proper search would show 
a deep channel all through here, but it 
would be very crooked, as it would 
wind about those gravel heaps. This 
shoal extends about a mile and a half. 
Through " Beaver Lake " in low water 
there is ten feet in depth, in ordinary 
water twelve and in high water four- 
teen. Of course, this refers to the 
shallowest places in it. 

Providence Rapid, situated a little 
above Fort Providence, gives five feet 
in the shallowest places in low water, 
in ordinary stages six to seven feet. 
This extends for about two miles. 



OFC 



loo CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

Here, as in the forementioned places, a good channel could be found, but it would 
be very crooked, so much so that a steamer descending could not keep in it. From 
this rapid down to Rapid Sans Sault the least depth in the lowest water was found 
to be twelve feet. 

Rapid Sans Sault is caused by a ledge of rock extending across the river. 
Near the easterly shore the water drops over this a few inches and causes quite a 
commotion across the easterly half of the river. Li the westerly half there appears 
to be a greater depth of water and smoother current. It need hardly be said that 
the steam-boat channel is on the westerly side in the smooth water. (Jver the ledge 
the lowest water found by Capt. Bell, in a year remarkable for the low state of 
all the rivers in the country, was six feet. 

Over the ledge of the Cascade Rapids, which are caused by an obstruction simi- 
lar to that at Rapid Sans Sault, Capt. Bell found nine feet in low water, and eleven 
in good water. The rapid is near the head of the " Ramparts." 

Close to the Ramparts there is another rapid known as " Rampart Rapids ; " 
this also is caused by rock bottom in the river. In it in lowest water Capt. Bell 
gives the depth as eleven feet, and in high water fifteen. This extends about half a 
mile. 

In his various passages of the Ramparts, Capt. Bell has sounded without find- 
ing bottom with forty fathoms, which was the length of his sounding line. I have 
mentioned in my report for 1889 that Sir Alexander Mackenzie found fifty fathoms 
here. 

Between the Ramparts and the delta, where the steamer leaves the main chan- 
nel, less than twelve feet depth was never found, but Capt. Bell says that less might 
be found. Through the channels of the Delta to Peel River no difficulty was ever 
experienced with the steamer. 

In Peel River up to the bar, five miles below Fort McPherson, average depth 
of water about fifteen fe^, on bar in low water about six feet, medium water seven 
feet. 

Count de Sainville, a French gentleman who went down the Mackenzie in 1889, 
and spent much time in making an examination and rough survey of the delta of the 
Mackenzie and Peel Rivers, and the coast line in the estuary of those streams, was 
good enough to give me all the information in his power. His description of the 
country in this vicinity is interesting, and will be given later on. He assured me the 
most easterly channel of the delta is the main one, and he never found less than 
twelve feet depth in it down to tide water. The tides do not come up more than ten 
or twelve miles above the ocean, and the rise is not more than a couple of feet. 

What depth might be found beyond the mouth of the river he is not prepared to 
say, but bars there may naturally be looked for. This gentleman purposes making 
further and more complete examinations which will, no doubt, be of much interest 
and value. He promised to send me a copy of his map of the delta, which he told 
me would differ much from what is usually shown on our maps. I have not yet re- 
ceived it nor do I expect it for some months to come. 

Before resuming the narrative of my journey, I will give some notes I obtained 
from Capt. Segur, of the steamer "Athabasca," and Capt. Bell of the steamer 
" Wrigley," giving the times over the various parts of their runs. 

Steamer ''Athabasca," 2nd June, 1891, ran from Athabasca Landing down to 
landing of Grand Rapids, about 163 miles, in eighteen hours, with six large boats in 
tow. Up trip started on 6th June, running time to Athabasca Landing forty-eight 
hours. Second trip down, 13th July, running time down fifteen hours and forty-five 
minutes. In 1890, her first down trip, made the 2nd of June, was done in twenty 
hours and fifty minutes, and the return, loth June, in fifty hours. This run was 
made in very low water. 

The " Wrigley's " log shows the following averages between Fort Smith, the most 
southerly part of her run, and Fort McPherson, the most northerly ; the distance be- 
tween them is about 1,270 miles. From Smith to Resolution, nearly all on Great 
Slave River, average running time about eighteen hours ; between Resolution and 
Providence about seventeen hours, of which one hundred and twenty-one (121) is in 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. loi 

Great Slave Lake ; between Providence and Simpson about fourteen hours, Simpson 
to Wrigley about ten and a half hours, Wrigley to Norman about fourteen hours, 
Norman to Good Hope about thirteen hours. Good Hope to McPherson about twenty- 
four and a half hours. The total running time is 123^ hours, a trifle over ten and 
a quarter miles per hour. 

On her " up " runs the following averages have been made, McPherson to Good 
Hope forty hours. Good Hope to Norman thirty-four hours, Norman to Wrigley 
thirty-nine hours, Wrigley to Simpson nineteen hours, Simpson to Providence about 
twenty-eight and a half hours, Providence to Fort Rae, not certain, appears to be 
about thirteen hours. Providence to Resolution about twenty hours. Resolution to 
Smith about thirty-five hours. Resolution to Rae about fifteen hours and return about 
the same, as it is all lake water. The duration of these runs varied somewhat by the 
force and direction of the wind. The total running time from McPherson to Smith, 
as shown above, is 215^ hours, which gives a rate of 5.9 miles per hour. The mean 
of the up and down rates is a fraction over eight miles per hour, which is said to be 
her normal speed. 

I have given the distance between those posts in my report of 1889, but for con- 
venience of reference will here recapitulate them going down stream : 

Miles. 

Chipewyan to Smith, 102.5 

Smith to Resolution, iQO-S 

Resolution to Providence, 167.0 

Providence to Simpson, iS7-5 

Simpson to Wrigley, i34-o 

Wrigley to Norman, 180.3 

Norman to Good Hope, 169.5 

Good Hope to McPherson, ' .. . . 274.7 

Total, 1,376.0 

From Fort McPherson, on Peel River, the ordinary route is over the portage, 
about 80 miles long, to La Pierre's House on the Bell River. 

This portage traverses a bad country for summer travel, being both mountain- 
ous and swampy. The Hudson Bay Company used it during winter for the trans- 
port of supplies and furs to and from Rampart House and La Pierre's House, while 
those posts were in existence (I understand they are now abandoned). Over this 
portage during summer the mosquitoes swarm in myriads during warm days, but 
often it is cool enough to subdue their troublesome propensities. 

If we are fortunate enough to find Indians at McPherson to help over the port- 
age our time of transit is proportionately abridged, but that we will do so depends 
much on the time we get there. Should we reach there during the fishing season 
they will be loth to accompany us ; and even if we found them disengaged, several 
days may be wasted inducing them to go. 

To avoid this portage we may go up a stream, called Trout, Poplar or Rat 
River, flowing from the watershed of the Yukon into Peel River, some 14 miles 
below McPherson. For about 20 miles this is tranquil and easy of ascent. 

There is a lake about 18 miles up which is such a maze of islands, that unless 
we have a good guide much time may be lost in finding the river on the other side. 
Going up keep the right-hand or northerly channel. A few miles above the lake 
we reach the base of the mountains in which this stream rises, and through which 
we have to go about 24 miles to McDougall Pass. In this last distance the river 
falls between 1,100 and 1,200 feet, and is consequently very rough. Except in spring 
freshet it is very shallow and is also very rocky. The best way to get up this, in 
fact, it might be said the only way (in parts, at least), is to wade in the water and 
haul our boat along by hand. 

McDougall Pass is a broad, flat valley, joining the valley of the Trout, or Pop- 
lar, and the valley of Bell River. Two creeks run in it, one flowing into Trout and 



I02 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

the other into Bell River. One cannot very well mistake the pass, on account of its 
width and flatness, and the fact that the creek joining Trout River flows into it 
through a narrow gate-like gorge in the rocks. Over the pass to Bell River is 8 
miles, and it is probable everything will have to be carried across it. The creeks 
are all too small to take a loaded boat through except in high water. 

Down Bell River to La Pierre's House is about 40 miles of easy water, deep 
enough for such boats as we are likely to take with us. From La Pierre's House 
down Bell River to the Porcupine is between 30 and 40 miles, and down the Porcu- 
pine to the Yukon is 225 miles in an air line, and probably 350 by the river. In 
1873, Mr. James McDougall of the Hudson Bay Company made soundings in those 
two rivers to determine if steamboats could go up to La Pierre's House. The 
water was unusually low at the time, and he found five shallow places between La 
Pierre's House and the Yukon. The first of those from La Pierre's House, known 
as Sinclair Rapids, a short distance below the house, gave, in the shallowest place, 
three feet six inches. Next, a short distance below Bell River, in the Porcupine, 
he found only two feet eight inches, but he considers this easy of improvement, be- 
ing a barrier of soft sand-stone rock only about 150 yards across. The other three 
places are between the boundary and the Yukon, and are in the order of descent 
three feet ten inches, three feet six inches, and three feet four inches. At one of 
those points there is an island, and he naturally took the widest channel for the 
deepest, but afterwards was informed that the narrowest channel was quite deep. 

I may say that it was by the Trout River and McDougall Pass that Harper 
and his associates made their way from Peel River to Bell River, and he informed 
me the only way they could get their boat along in the upper part of Trout River 
was to wade up the stream and haul it after them, often dragging it over rocks and 
shallow places where there was not sufficient water to float if. This was about July 
ist, T873. They reached Yukon on the 15th. 

I came through this route on my way from Bell River to Peel River in June, 
1888, and found much ice and snow in McDougall Pass at that time. Several 
small lakes in the pass were still covered with solid ice on the 15th of that month. 
On my way down the rough part of Trout River I generally sat astride the stern of 
the canoe, my feet hanging in the water, and they often touched bottom. I did this 
to find the shallow places, and check the rate of the canoe in going over them. 

I may here mention that very bad places may be gone down in this way, or, still 
better, if we have poles, by putting them on the bottom and arresting the speed of 
the boat, we can, with a little experience, keep it under perfect control and put it 
just where we want to. Of course in deep water this does not apply, but in deep 
water we do not run risk of breaking our boat, though she may be swamped. 

From the mouth of the Porcupine, up the Yukon to Dawson is about 300 miles, 
and if we are fortunate enough to find a steamer at Fort Yukon, this will be passed 
in about a week, but if we have to make our own way up, it will take at least three 
weeks, or it may be a month, much depending on the weather and stage of the 
water, also much on the kind of boat we have. 

When we take into consideration the fact that the ice remains on Great Slave 
Lake until about the first of July, unless we pass that body of water by sleighs it 
will be seen that we cannot reach Dawson much earlier than the middle of August. 
If we secure passage down the Mackenzie by one or other of the small steamers ply- 
ing on that river we will probably shorten the time of our journey 8 or 10 days ; but 
it is well to bear in mind that these boats were not intended to make regular trips, 
nor do they. They are run in the interest and for the convenience of the owners, 
the Hudson Bay Company and Roman Catholic Mission. 

On the Yukon River it is pretty safe to assume we shall not have long to wait 
for a steamer next summer, there will be so many running between St. Michael's and 
Dawson ; but it can hardly be asserted that any one line of boats will make regular 
trips, for their time of arrival and departure at and from St. Michael's, the ocean port 
near the mouth of the river, is subject to much interference by winds and tides. 

Another proposed route from Edmonton follows the road to Athabasca Land- 
ing as already referred to, thence up the Athabasca River about 69 miles to Lesser 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



103 



Slave River, up that river about 60 miles, the lower 20 miles of which is all rapids 
and in low water difficult of ascent. Along Lesser Slave Lake some 65 or 70 miles 
to Lesser Slave Lake Post, at the head of the lake. 

Another part of this route, and the part which appears to have been adopted by 
the people in the vicinity of Edmonton, runs north westward from Edmonton to 
Lesser Slave Lake Post at the west end of Lesser Slave Lake. This distance is 
about 200 miles, of which about 50 brings us to the crossing of the Pembina River, 
an inconsiderable stream about 70 yards wide, and not difficult to cross ; about 26 
more brings us to the Athabasca River, which is about 200 yards wide and generally 
deep enough for a boat drawing two or three feet of water. The first 20 or 30 miles 
of the distance from Edmonton is over fine prairie country, and a few miles farther 
on we strike the great northern forest. The part between the Athabasca and Lesser 
Slave Lake is reported somewhat hilly, which is verified by its appearance from 
Lesser Slave Lake, but doubtless a way suitable for a road of any kind can be found 




Looking up the Canyon on Fortymile. ^'''"^ ^'"'^'' ^^^ ^^" ^Silvie, 



over it. Years ago the Hudson Bay Company had a pack trail from Edmonton to 
Lesser Slave Lake Post, by nearly the same route as the proposed one, but it has 
been abandoned for the river route many years. 

Sufficient lumber of suitable quality will be found along this route for its needs. 

The surface is described as ridgy and swampy alternately. 

A road is now in progress over this country. 

For a more detailed account of this part of the North-west see report of Dr. G. M. 
Dawson, Appendix i, in the Geological Survey Report for 1879-80. 

I will just cite it to say that gold is found in paying quantities on the Upper 
Athabasca. 

From Lesser Slave Lake Post we have a fair cart road, cut out some years ago 
by the Hudson Bay Company to Peace River, a distance of about 86 miles, through 
3. well-wooded country with some patches of prairie and swampy meadow in it, and 



I04 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

from Peace River westward to Fort Dunvegan, a distance of about 60 miles, we pass 
over a magnificent piece of park-like country, but at Dunvegan we again strike the 
edge of the great northern forests, and from there to the Liard River the country is 
somewhat hilly, intersected by very deep gulches and valleys and all densely wooded, 
alternating ridges covered with fair timber and swamp covered with moss and scrub. 
From Dunvegan to Dawson in an air line is about 900 miles, and from Dunvegan to 
Pelly Lake on the head of the Pally River in an air line is about 600 miles, and at 
present there is no available continuous route. 

Examination of the intervening country will presumably be soon made. To 
follow up the valley of the Peace, as I believe it is proposed, and cross the mountains 
into British Columbia, will lengthen the route to Pelly Lake materially, making it 
700 miles or more, but it will deflect it into an old gold mining district — the head 
waters of the Peace — where good pay may yet be found. 

A few years ago some miners were working on the Peace in the vicinity of Fort 
St. John, and it will be remembered that it was from the head of Peace River that 
Harper and his associates started in 1872. The first two or three hundred miles of 
either of these routes will not be very difficult, but the remaining portion will likely 
prove more mountainous and difficult, and probably similar, in surface characteristics 
at least, to the north-western portion of Canada, and Alaska — that is, mountain 
ridges alternating with deep valleys and swamps, which will much increase the 
length of any route constructed through it. 

CARIBOO AND CASSAIR ROUTE. 

A route is being proposed from some point on the Canadian Pacific Railway in 
the interior of British Columbia, through what is called the Cariboo or Cassair Dis- 
trict. Time will no doubt develop the necessity for such a route as this, as the 
country all along it will be found generally good from the mineralogist's point of 
view, and in the future will no doubt be part of a continuous railway system from 
the boundary line northwards to the Yukon. 

From some point on the Canadian Pacific Railway, about midway across British 
Columbia to the Stikine River at or near Telegraph Creek, is about 500 miles in an 
air line, and presumably this does not offer any more serious obstacles to the con- 
struction of a road than a like distance in any other part of the Province. 

The remaining routes to be mentioned all leave some point on the coast, and we 
make our way northward by ship to whatever point we wish to make our departure 
from for the interior. 

STIKINE ROUTE. 

First, we will glance at the proposed Stikine Route. From Victoria to Port 
Simpson, the most northern port in British Columbia, a distance of upwards of 600 
miles, sailing is easy, through continuous inland tidal waters. If we have to make 
our way entirely in British vessels we can take a river steamer at Port Simpson, and 
watching for a favourable opportunity to cross Dixon Entrance (some 60 miles 
across), 170 miles brings us to the mouth of the Stikine River. Up this river about 
150 miles brings us to a point where it is hoped in a few months we will have a good 
road, if not a railway, giving communication with the head of Teslin Lake. From 
the river to the head of the lake is about 150 miles. Down this lake about 65 miles, 
and down the river of the same name — or, as it is known by the miners, the Hoota- 
linqua — about 135 miles to the Lewis River. A track survey of this lake and river 
was recently made by Mr. Arthur St. Cyr, D.L.S., for the Canadian Government, and 
the distances given are his. He says the lake and river are easily navigable for 
ordinary river boats. He went down in October when the water was 10 to 12 feet 
lower than high water mark, from which we may safely assume that it is safely 
navigable all the way. He got into shallow water two or three times, but only where 
there was more than one channel, and he took the wrong one. Trial found the other 
channel deep enough for ordinary river boats. From the mouth of the Hootalinqua 
to Dawson is about 330 miles, with only one hindrance to continuous easy navigation, 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



105 



that is, the Five Fingers. These are not long, consisting of simply a dip which is 
caused by barriers of rock standing in the channel, backing the water up so that the 
water above the rocks is a foot or two higher than that immediately below. Almost 
everyone runs these ; many, however, in descending, ship water, but I fancy this is 
due to the fact that they hurry their boat through, making her cut into the swell 
below instead of raising on it as she would do if allowed to drift through. In 1895, 
on my way down, I ran down the left side of the river at this point and found good, 
smooth water all the way through. The channel was somewhat crooked, but not 
enough so to cause any difficulty or anxiety in keeping the boat in the right place. 
The channel generally run is on the right-hand side, and here there is quite a dip 
and a large swell at the foot. It may be found, however, that at another stage of the 
water the channel on the left side would be impassable. When I went there in 1895 
the river was some five feet higher than the average at the same date, and this may 
account for the easy passage on that side. From there to Dawson there is nothing 
in the way, except we wish to run over a ripple some six miles below the Five Fingers, 
called Rink Rapids. At this point a rocky barrier extends about half way across the 
stream, and on the left-hand side there is some rough water, but the right-hand is 
perfectly smooth and affords a channel of six feet in depth almost anywhere. The 
overland trip to Teslin Lake is over a hilly, undulating country, which offers no 
serious obstacle to the construction of a railway ; in fact, it might be said a railway 
could be constructed over it almost as quickly as a wagon road. It is expected that 
next summer there will be easy means of ingress by this route. It is reported that a 
company is now engaged putting horses and sleighs on it, forming a continuous 
through line from the mouth of the Stikine to Teslin Lake. 

The Hudson Bay Company's steamer '* Caledonia " made two trips from Port 
Simpson to the Stikine River, and up it to Telegraph Creek, in 1896, and two in 1897. 
Her running time from Simpson to Wrangel, at the mouth of the Stikine, averaged 
about 16 hours. She draws when loaded 4 feet, and only on the tidal flats at the 




From Photo, by W. Ogilvie 
Alaska Commercial Co.'s Warehouse in course of erection at Dawson, July, 1897. 



io6 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

mouth of the river was she bothered by shallow water. At some points short bends 
with a swift current required the aid of a Hne to surmount, but this was more to keep 
her in the channel than to help up. 

Sudden rises in the river also bring down lots of driftwood, which compel tying 
up until it abates. 

Her average time of ascent was about 37 hours, exclusive of the time lost wood- 
ing up. Her average time of descent was about 14 hours, including time wooding 
up and all stops. This boat is 150 feet long, 24 feet 4 inch beam, two engines, cyl- 
inders 16-inch bore and 6 feet stroke ; steam pressure allowed 130 lbs.; average used 
90. Wheel makes ordinarily 24 revolutions per minute in dead water, but ascending 
swift current as many as 35 are made. Her average rate in dead water is about 
10^ miles per hour. Her rate up the Stikine is about 4 miles per hour and down 
about 12^. 

TAKU ROUTE. 

The next route in order northward is the proposed Taku route. From Fort 
Wrangel, at the mouth of the Stikine, to the mouth of the Taku Inlet, is about 160 
miles, or nearly 800 miles from Victoria or Vancouver. This inlet is about 18 
miles in depth, and near its upper end the Taku River discharges its waters. During 
June, July and part of August the stage of water will permit the use of good-sized 
boats, and it is claimed for it that steamboats drawing three or four feet of water can 
ascend it some 60 miles during this term. This remains to be proved, however ; but 
there is no doubt that we can ascend it to The Forks in a fair-sized boat carrying two 
or three tons. From The Forks, some nine miles up, to the confluence of the Slocoh 
and Nakinah, we can continue in fair stages of water, but from there everything has 
to be packed. The Indian route from this point to the head of Teslin Lake passes 
over a mountainous country, with, in some places, very steep climbing, for a distance 
of eight or nine miles, when we reach an elevated plateau, as it may be termed, over 
which travel is easier, to the head of the lake. Several miners attempted entry by 
this route, and some came out, but all unite in condemning it as a pack trail. It may 
be that a road will be constructed through this way, as one is now in oontemplation, 
but for a convenient present route, for unaided individual effort, it need not be con- 
sidered. The head of Taku Inlet is generally pretty well filled with ice from the 
Taku glacier discharging a couple of miles above the mouth of the Taku River, 
which in summer renders it a somewhat risky harbour, and in winter this ice some- 
times freezes together and blocks the whole head of the inlet. 

The navigability of the river is also very uncertain. No attempt has yet been 
made, and while it is admitted it might be navigable two or three months, it is not 
stated as a general fact. From the head of Teslin Lake we have already described 
in connection with the Stikine route. 

WHITE PASS. 

Some 100 miles further up the coast we come to the White Pass and Dyea Pass.. 
The first of these starts at the mouth of the Skaguay River, some two miles from the 
head of Dyea Inlet. For about four miles the route goes over an alluvial flat cov- 
ered with fair timber, and from this point to the summit, about 11 miles, it follows 
along the hillside bordering the valley, ascending and descending over rough, broken, 
rocky surface, crossing and recrossing the little river several times, until at the sum- 
mit, although we are only 2,600 feet above the sea, (the summit on the travelled trail 
is 200 or 300 feet higher) we aggregate possibly 5,000 feet actual climbing. As this 
route has been travelled considerably there will be no difificulty in finding one's way 
on it, but it may be of interest to give the following details. 

From the wharf at Skaguay for 3>^ miles we have easy travelling over an 
alluvial flat rising about 140 feet. Here we leave the flat and go up a gulch to 
Black Lake, about i^ miles, and rise about 400 feet. We continue along the hill- 
side up and down to the summit of Porcupine Hill, about 1,000 feet above Black 
Lake, and 3^ miles distant from it. From here we descend about 500 feet in one 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



107 




Looking up Yukon Valley from Mountain Top East of Dawson. 

Left Foreground. 



J-'ri'iii Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 
Mouth of Klondike in 



mile, when we cross the Skaguay River, and from there ascend about 300 feet in 
2^ miles, crossing the creek again, and ascending the hillside 1,000 feet in about 
xYi miles, which we keep along about one mile on a high level to the foot of the 
steep summit slope, going down about 100 feet to it. Up it we go about 900 feet to 
the summit on the trail. The surface travelled over is very irregular and rough ; 
most of the way we are continually going up and down hill over knolls and gulches 
on the hillside. From the summit to the head of Lake Bennett, about 24 miles, the 
route winds through a rocky, glaciated country, much broken by valleys, so that we 
aggregate much more climbing in this last part. However, during the months of 
February, March and April — and May, it may also be claimed — much of this will be 
filled with snow, the surface smoother and less difficult to travel over, and it may be 
found that this is the better route of the two. 



THE DYEA OR CHILCOOT PASS ROUTE. 

The Dyea Pass leaves the head of Dyea Inlet and for the first eight miles from 
tidewater up to the foot of the canon the route is easy ; nothing worse than a few 
rocks which were left in the terminal moraine of a glacier have to be encountered, 
and this only for a short distance here and there. The rise in this is about 300 feet. 
From the foot of the canon the route winds along the hillside, and a few steep, short 
climbs have to be made as we go along, until we come to the second crossing 
of the creek. This is the worst part of this trail, for it is all heavily wooded and the 
surface rough and covered with decayed vegetable matter which in spots is worked 
into deep mud by the animals passing over it. The worse spots have been crosslaid. 

At the lower end of the caiion we cross the creek to the left or east side. 
Unless in very high water this is not difficult, as the water is only a couple of feet 



io8 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

deep, but the current is strong and the water icy cold. The width is only 30 or 40 
yards. About 10^ miles from tide water we cross the creek on a bridge at the 
head of the canon, which is about 700 feet above the sea. In the intervening dis- 
tance the highest point is about 800 feet above sea level. We keep up the right or 
west side of the creek about i y^ miles to Sheep Camp, when we again cross the 
creek to the east side ; in this last distance we rise about 300 feet. From there to 
Stone House, about ^ of a mile, we rise nearly 600 feet and pass over a rough 
surface covered with immense rocks which by some convulsion of nature have been 
detached from the mountain side and rolled down to the bank of the creek. 
Through and over these we have to clamber a considerable portion of this distance. 
From Stone House the surface is more even and the travelling easier, as we have 
risen above the timber and scrub, and out of the mud which is found on the tim- 
bered ground. About half a mile from Stone House we ascend a sharp hill on the 
right or west side of the creek, the top of which is about 600 feet above Stone 
House. From this point we have easier travelling and rise about 900 feet over 
an easy grade to a place named "Scales." From this there is a sharp ascent to 
the summit of nearly 500 feet over a surface thickly covered with broken rocks which 
makes very difficult travelling, more especially when there is not enough snow to 
thoroughly cover all the surface ; with a little freshly fallen snow here this part is 
difficult, and in spots dangerous. 

After the snow has covered all the rocks the route follows the bed of the creek 
and is a more uniform slope, easy, in fact, until we reach the foot of the steep slope 
at the summit. After the warm weather sets in in the spring the snow from Sheep 
Camp up gets soft, and on a warm or rainy day it is very difficult to travel through. 
When it turns cold the surface gets hard and we may have to cut steps in the steep 
places to get up. 

Messrs. Healey & Wilson, traders at Dyea, some years ago cut a pack trail from 
their post to Sheep Camp. This is now in a fair state for that country. What rights 
they claim on it I do not know, but I have not heard of their interfering with the 
public use of it, at least as far as miners are concerned. 

A wire rope tramway is in course of erection to take freight from Stone House to 
and over the summit, and it may be that this will obviate much difficulty and hardship. 

From the summit to Lake Lindeman, a distance of about 8^ or 9 miles, there 
is a descent of about 1,300 feet, but at only one point is it steep, and that for a very 
short distance. It is just at Crater Lake, and is only a couple of hundred feet in all. 
The trail the Indians used to travel keeps along the hillside and avoids this sharp 
descent, not reaching the level of the lake till nearly a mile farther on. Now the 
trail goes right down to the lake and a ferry over it saves about a mile of packing. 
A short portage brings us to another lake over which a ferry will take us about a mile 
more if we choose, and again another portage of a few rods brings us to another lake 
which may be ferried over, thus taking about three miles out of our 8 or 9. These 
lakes are not open before the middle of June or first of July, and remain open until 
November. 

Horses have been driven over the pass to Lake Lindeman, but there is very 
little for them to eat on the north side of the summit, or on the south side for that 
matter, and all contemplating taking those animals should take plenty of fodder 
with them. The carcasses of a good number of them are now lying along this trail, 
brought about by a neglect of this precaution. From the landing at Lake Linde- 
man we have to go down this lake about 5 miles, and from the lower end a portage 
of about ^ of a mile over a high sandy ridge brings us to navigable water on Lake 
Bennett, to which the White Pass trail also brings us, and from here on the route is 
common to both. The wire tramways mentioned will probably, if successful, be car- 
ried over the summit and may be down to Lake Lindeman. 

Once down to the lakes our only detention will arise from fierce winds which 
often blow on them for days at a time, which, when with us, often render it too rough 
for small boats, and when against us effectually stop all travel. 

Lake Bennett is about 25 j^ miles long, and for the first 11 or 12 miles is about 
y2 a mile in width, and the remainder from one to three. It is probable that the 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 109 

coming season will see several steamboats in those lakes, which will much obviate 
delay by winds. Lake Nares is about 2^, and Tagish about 17. Six or seven miles 
from the head of Tagish Lake what is known as Windy Arm rises from the south. 
Down this arm strong winds are almost constantly sweeping, which render naviga- 
tion for small boats very often unsafe. This often causes delay for days. From the 
foot of Tagish Lake to the head of Marsh Lake, a distance of about five miles, the 
river is deep and smooth. On this stretch is situated the Canadian Customs Office 
and detachment of Mounted Police. Marsh Lake is nearly 20 miles in length, and 
from the foot of it to the canon, about 25 miles, we have nothing to dread. The 
canon may be run through with a fair-sized boat not too heavily loaded. The only 
things to be avoided are the three swells right at the foot. These we may avoid by 
deflecting our course a little to the left, but all the rest of the distance, to be safe, 
we should keep exactly in the center of the channel on top of the rushing water 
which piles up in the middle. It is well at this point to portage some provisions past 
so that in case of accident we may have something to fall back upon. Many boats 
are injured in their passage through the canon, but this has happened chiefly through 
want of sufficient power to keep steerway on them. In this case they drift off the 
main body of the water, catch in the side eddies, are whirled round and dashed 
against the rocks on the sides. Where there are a number of boats together this 
may be avoided by the crews clubbing together, putting out with plenty of oars and 
running each boat through separately. A few hundred yards below the canon, we 
strike a rapid which is somewhat rough, but with ordinary care not dangerous. A 
short interval of smooth water brings us to a sharp turn to the left, which, in a 
couple of hundred yards, brings us to an equally sharp turn to the right. This is the 
head of White Horse Rapid. Now, this has been gone through by many, but at 
present I think it can be positively stated that about thirty men have lost their lives 
in attempting to run it. During the summer of 1895, 13 deaths were traced at this 
point through boats being swamped ; besides this, the majority of boats which ran 
through took more or less water, and in many cases the contents of the boats were 
lost, the crews escaping with their lives. I would urge all to portage past this. 
There is a good portage on the left side of the river, and it is only a little over three- 
eighths of a mile in length. The boat can be lowered by ropes, reloaded at the foot, 
and we pass on in safety. From there to Lake Labarge, a distance of about 24 miles, 
the river is smooth and deep. Lake Labarge is about ^1% miles in length, and here, 
too, as at the upper lakes, we may be wind-bound for days at a time. From the foot 
of the lake to the mouth of the Hootalinqua is about 31 miles, most of which is very 
strong current, with a few rocks in the river channel. These reveal their position 
by the roar which the current makes in passing over them, and there is no difficulty 
in avoiding them. From the mouth of the Hootalinqua down has been already de- 
scribed. 

The following table of distances from the head of Lake Bennett to the Bound- 
ary Line is quoted from my report of 1889 : 

MILES. MILES. 

Northern Boundary, British Columbia, . lO.O Teslin River, 1 87. 8 

Foot of Lake Bennett, 25.7 Big Salmon, 221.2 

Foot of Cariboo Crossing, 28.3 Little Salmon, 257.4 

Foot of Tagish Lake, 45.2 Five Finger Rapids, 316.7 

Head of Marsh Lake, 50.0 Pelly River, 375-2 

Foot of Marsh Lake, 69. 1 White River, 47I-0 

Head of Canon, 94.8 Stewart River, 480.8 

Foot of White Horse Rapids, .... 97.2 Dawson, 549-° 

Takhina River, . . . _. ill. 8 Fortymile, ......... 599-0 

Lake Labarge, . . . ". 125.0 Boundary Line, 639.3 

Foot of Lake Labarge, IS^-^ 

DALTON ROUTE. 

The next route is known as the Dalton route. To traverse this we leave Chilkat 
at the head of the westerly arm of Lynn Canal. 



no CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

Mr. J. J. McArthur, D, L. S., made a reconnaissance survey of this route last 
summer for the Dominion Government, and a short report by him on it is inserted : 

" During the winter months, after the Chilkat River is frozen, Haine's Mission 
is the better landing place, but at other times Pyramid Harbour is the more con- 
venient. To Kluwan — a good-sized Klinkit village — there are two trails. One 
leaves Pyramid Harbour and follows the river flat, mostly to the left of the stream, 
and the other, from Haine's Mission, follows the side hill to the right. Except 
during extreme high water the first mentioned is the better. There are hay marshes 
along the valley. In March last, Dalton delivered 15 tons of supplies at his 
* Cache ' at the end of the Klaheena flats, a distance of forty miles, his four-horse 
team drawing eighty hundred in one sleigh load, and he has frequently ridden the 
distance in one day. As the trail is at present, in the summer time, an ordinary 
saddle horse can make Dalton's trading-post, about 90 miles from salt water, in 
three days. 

" The Minister asked me to suggest a site for a customs house. Dalton's Cache 
is a beautiful spot and well situated on the travelled route. This point is, I think, 
well within our territory. The Coast Indians have hunting trails up Boulder Creek 
and the tributaries of the Chilkat, and they do considerable trading with the interior 
Indians. Should smuggling be attempted on those routes, the customs house might 
be moved up to the height of land. The distance is about seventy miles from salt 
water, and there is no timber within several miles. 

" From Rainy Hollow to Glacier Camp, a stretch of about fifteen miles, would 
be the most difficult part of the route in winter, as there is no wood, and the snow 
would be much deeper than further north. There is very little swamp land between 
Pyramid Harbour and Dalton's, and animals never get mired. The Indian village 
Weskutaheen is a mile and a half west of the post. They are Sticks and a very 
docile people. On the trail, fifteen miles north of Dalton's, is Kluksku Lake, about 
three miles in length, which is connected by a creek about a mile and a half long 
with Lake Dezadeash. This is a large body of water, and the trail follows it for 
twenty-five miles. It could be used for winter travel. In fact, between salt water 
and Five Fingers, one hundred miles of a winter trail would be on ice. From 
Dalton's to Hutshi village (three houses and a graveyard), a distance of about 
seventy miles, the trail is hard except in one or two places, and at very slight expense 
could be made into a first-class bridle path ; as it is, a saddle horse can rhake forty 
miles in a day. Fish abound in the Klukshu, Dezadeash and Hutshi Lakes, and the 
Alsek is one of the greatest salmon streams I have met with. From Hutshi to Five 
Fingers the trail is hard, and is the best portion of the route. From Dalton's north 
there is an abundance of dry wood, and hay marshes are numerous. The trail 
from Hutshi to Selkirk, broken by Dalton and me this summer, crosses several high, 
moss-covered ranges, and could never be made a quick trail. On this trip, when 
about sixty miles south from Selkirk, we crossed the Tahte River, which is a good- 
sized stream, flowing west through a broad valley, which depression continues to 
the east as far as Nordenskiold. I am not certain whether it is a branch of the 
White River. I regret that, owing to my caches having been lifted by mistake, it 
was impossible for me to explore it to the west, as it may furnish an easy rail- 
way or wagon route to the mouth of White River, or some poitit below Selkirk." 

JAMES AND HUDSON BAY ROUTE. 

We will now examine the so-called Hudson Bay route, which leaves the 
Canadian Pacific Railway at Mattawa, about 200 miles up the Ottawa River from 
Ottawa city. Thence up the Ottawa River to Lake Temiscamingue, some 36 miles, 
and up that lake some 70 miles to its head. Part of this distance is now covered 
by a branch of the Canadian Pacific Railway. From the head of Lake Temiscam- 
ingue to James Bay, a distance of nearly 500 miles, a route once much travelled by 
the Hudson Bay Company's employees. From Mattawa to the foot of Lake 
Temiscamingue, some 36 miles, the Canadian Pacific Railway will take us in an 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. iii 

hour or two, and up the lake we can go by steamer, there being several on it. 
From Mattawa to the head of the lake, about loo miles, we ought to go in a day ; 
from there on we have no modern facilities for travel, and will find the rate much 
slower. The following extract from my report of 1890 gives in detail, from the 
head of the lake to Moose Factory, the nature of the route. 

"We leave the head of the Lake Temiscamingue by a part of the Ottawa River, 
locally known as the Quinze River, from the fact that fifteen portages have to be 
made on it to get to the lake at its head, known as Quinze Lake. 

" All this is now avoided by a waggon road from Bale de Pere, on Lake Temis- 
camingue, to a bay on Quinze Lake. The length of this road is said to be about 
20 miles. I was unable to get my canoes and all my supplies through by this route, 
and had to go by the Quinze River. This caused two and a half days of very 
heavy work. 

"A few notes on this part of the journey will not be out of place. 








Looking up Yukon River from 3 Miles below Fortymile. — Cudahy and Fortymile in 
Distance, Rock Point on Right 1,300 Feet above Water. 



"The first portage going up the river is on the south side, and about 120 yards 
long ; the second, on the same side, about 250 yards long ; the third, on the north 
side, about half a mile long, and over some rough ground. These three are all with- 
in sight of each other. Above the third there are about three miles of slack current 
to the fourth portage, which is on the north side of the river, and more than two 
miles long. In the ordinary height of water this is broken into three shorter ones by 
crossing the river, but my guides thought the current too strong and the water too 
rough to do this with my canoes. About a mile above this the fifth portage occurs 
on the north side of the river ; it is only 100 yards long, but is over a sharp hill. 
Two hundred yards or so above this is the sixth portage, on the north side of the 
island ; it is about 150 yards long. In coming down stream with medium height of 
water, both of these can be safely run past in ordinary canoes. Three-fourths of a 
mile above this is the seventh portage, on the south side of the river. It is over a 



112 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

very rough, rocky surface and leads us from the river to a small lake, over which we 
sail about half a mile to another portage, over rough, rocky ground to the river again. 
The first of these is about 300 yards long, the other about 400 ; but in high water 
the latter is reduced about half. These two portages cut off a sharp bend in the 
river, in which there is said to be some very rough water. A mile or so of easy water 
in the river brings us to the ninth portage. It is on the north side of the river, is 
upwards of 1,000 yards long, and passes over rough ground. In low water this is 
cut into two or three by crossing the river. 

" The next portage is also on the north side, is 650 yards long, and on tolerably 
good ground. There is about three-fourths of a mile between it and the last. A 
mile or so above this, on the north side, is the eleventh and last portage we had to 
make on this part of the river. It is 450 yards long and is on level ground. 

" A mile above this puts us into Quinze Lake, up the north arm of which we go 
on a nearly north course about thirteen miles. The upper three or four miles is 
shallow. We leave this lake by a small river called Riviere Barrier, of an average 
width of 100 to 150 yards, and a slack current, up which we go about 2^ miles to a 
portage 300 yards long, which passes a series of shallow, rocky rapids. At the 
head of this portage we enter Lac Barrier, up which we go on a course nearly 
north-west about 15 miles to the mouth of a small river, called Lonely River, 
on the west side of the lake. This is the first stream of any noticeable size entering 
on this side. Beyond it there is a large island in the lake, which has the appear- 
ance of being the end of the lake. Just past this island the lake narrows, and 
then bifurcates — one arm running nearly west, the other nearly east. The 
westerly arm extends about six miles, and I do not know how far the other reaches. 
This lake is in no place that I saw much more than a mile wide. Its lower end is 
shallow and weedy. 

" The route follows Lonely River, up which we go about eight miles to Long 
Lake. The river is about 100 yards in average width, and has a moderate current. 
At one point it is only 2^ to 3 feet deep for a distance of 100 yards, but all the rest 
seemed to be upwards of five feet deep in low water. It is serpentine in its course, 
and the distance between the two lakes (Lake Barrier and Long Lake) I would not 
estimate at more than five miles in a direct line. 

" The arm of Long Lake, which we enter from Lonely River, is about a mile 
wide, 2^ long, and is generally shallow and weedy. The course up it is a little 
south of west. The main body of the lake, where this arm joins it, lies nearly north- 
west and south-east. South-east it extends six or eight miles, and is surrounded by 
high, rocky hills. North-west we go about ^}( miles to a narrow part of the lake, 
about 60 yards wide and 100 long, in which there is quite a stiff current during high 
water. This and above it is known as the Narrows. 

" These narrows continue for more than a mile, when the lake again widens. 
About ten miles above the narrows a deep bay extends from the south-westerly shore 
for several miles in a south-westerly direction. Looking down this bay, many hills 
can be seen. Prominent among these is one named " Shew-me-ness," which is 
said to be the highest hill in that part of the country ; its top is bare of timber. 
I was told the natives formerly (and to some extent still) considered it a holy 
hill, and it was customary for their medicine men to occasionally retire to its 
summit to fast and meditate. Two miles and a half or so past this bay, on the 
south-welterly shore, and soon after passing a couple of small, rocky islands, we 
reach the mouth of a creek. Here there is a portage of about 300 yards to a small 
lake nearly a mile long and one-fourth wide. A sail over this south-westerly to its 
extremity brings us to the east end of the height of land portage, over which we 
go in a westerly direction about half a mile to a small lake, the waters of which flow 
by the Abitibi River northwards to James Bay. In high water it flows both to the 
Abitibi and Ottawa, and, it is said, the channel giving vent to the Ottawa is yearly 
growing deeper. 

"We cross this lake in a north-westerly direction about i^ miles, and leave it 
by a small crooked creek, known as .Snake Creek, which passes through a grassy 
marsh. This creek is upwards of a mile long, but in a straight line it cannot be 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 113 





Coal Veins on Coal Creek, 12 Miles from iuiLV mile, 2 i.aycis, Man on Left Sian.ling at 
Bottom of Lower one, Pole Lying at Top of Upper. 

more than one-fourth of that distance from the last mentioned lake (or what we may 
call Summit Lake), to a very irregularly-shaped lake called Island Lake, north about 
eight miles, passing numberless and beautiful islands which are ever presenting new 
aspects of beauty," and revealing views of the distant hills around the lake, which, 
though not grand, are serenely beautiful. 

"Here we enter a deep, narrow bay, which trends eastward, , and on about a 
mile and a half further we enter the river which discharges the water of the lake. 
Down this for about a mile we come to a portage to pass a rapid in the stream. 
This rapid is about 140 yards long, with a fall of six feet or so. Three hundred 
yards below this again there is a third rapid and portage 170 yards long, with a fall 
of seven or eight feet ; about 300 yards below this there is another rapid and portage 
170 yards long, with a fall of ten feet. These three places are known as the ' Three 
Carrying Places.' 

" Below this the course of the river is a little east of north, and somewhat ser- 
pentine for a distance of about seven miles, at the end of which is another rapid and 
portage 40 yards long, with a fall of about five feet in low water, but hardly any fall 
in high water. Below this, for about 3^^ miles, the course is about north-east and 
serpentine. In this twelve miles of river the current is nowhere swift (except in the 
rapids). 

" Here we enter a lake called Upper Lake, and keeping close to the west shore 
we pass between some rock islands and enter a deep bay extending southward. We 
cross this on a north-westerlv course about ii^ miles, then continue along the west- 
erly shore about half a mile, when we cross the mouth of another deep bay on a 
nearly north-west course, about two miles, to the northerly shore of the lake. 
Skirting the shore a little over half a mile we enter a small stream, which in a few 
yards expands into a small lake, and running along the west shore of this we find an 
outlet to the river, of which there are several channels, which, however, unite just 
below here. 



114 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

" Upper Lake is very irregularly shaped ; islands are as numerous in it as in 
Island Lake, and the scenery as beautiful. These lakes will compare for beauty with 
any places I have ever seen ; and I feel confident, were they easily accessible, they 
would soon become places of resort in the tourist season. 

" About 2^ miles from this lake, in a generally north-easterly direction, there is 
a cataract in the river, and a portage of 40 yards to pass it. Here the stream nar- 
rows from 200 yards and upwards to less than a tenth of that, and falls through an 
opening resembling a gateway, in a ridge of granitic rock, a height of about twelve 
feet. Below this the course of the river is nearly north for 5 miles to Lake Abitibi, 
and from the mouth of the river to the Hudson Bay Company's trading post on the 
lake is about 2^ miles in a north-easterly direction. 

"The post is situated on a long flat point projecting into the lake, at its ex- 
treme east end. Formerly all the supplies for this post were brought from Moose 
up the Abitibi River, but for some years past they have been taken from Mattawa 
over the route I have just described, which considerably reduces the labour and 
expense of furnishing the post. 

'<LAKE ABITIBI. 

"Like all the other lakes along this route, this lake is irregularly shaped. It 
varies in width from a couple of miles to fourteen or fifteen. There are very 
many bays and numerous islands, most of which are rocky and many of them of con- 
siderable extent. 

" The route generally traveled from the post down the lake lies along the south 
shore for about 17^ miles, and then crosses to a point on the north shore on a 
nearly west course. The distance on this course is about 2>% miles, but the lake 
here is only a couple of miles wide. 

" Skirting the south shore for a distance of nearly five miles we reach the 
* Narrows,' which are about two miles long, and in parts not more than 300 yards 
wide. At the west end of the ' Narrows ' a large island makes two channels of exit — 
the one to the north avoids a portage across a long peninsula, which projects from 
the south shore many miles northward. By this route, however, there is a large ex- 
panse of open water to be crossed, which in windy weather becomes too rough for 
ordinary canoes, and causes much delay. The south channel passes through a bay 
with numerous islands in it, which afford such shelter that it can be crossed almost 
at any time. The course is generally between south-west and west for about 5^ 
miles, when we reach the peninsula already mentioned. At this point we make a por- 
tage of about one-fifth of a mile on a westerly course to a small lake about 300 yards 
across, from which another portage of about 150 yards brings us again to Lake 
Abitibi. Here we can in moderate winds cross straight to the head of Abitibi River, 
which, as seen from the portage, is just south of a small rocky island about two miles 
out, and nearly due west. The distance across is about 5^ or 6 miles. In windy 
weather, with a southerly or westerly wind, we can skirt the south and west shore of 
the lake to the same point, but with a northerly or north-westerly wind the water is 
too rough for an ordinary canoe. 

"ABITIBI RIVER. 

"At its head this river averages about 150 yards wide, with a moderate cur- 
rent. For the first five miles it runs generally south-westerly to the first portage, 
which is on the south side, and we pass a fall and rapids. The fall I should say 
is about twenty-eight feet high, and the total difference of level thirty-five feet. The 
portage is about a quarter of a mile long, and is not rough. 

" The course of the river is now for some distance nearly west. About two 
miles below the first fall there is a swift rush through a very narrow passage in a 
ridge of rock. Here the water is rough, but can be safely run in a good-sized canoe. 
Beyond this the water is smooth, with an easy current for about ten miles to a short 
rapid, easily run ; then there is a mile of smooth water, and then about a mile of 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



115 



swift, rough water, which only requires watchfulness in keeping off the rocks to be 
safely run in any canoe. 

" About a mile below this a considerable stream comes in on the north side. 
My guide told me it was called 'Mis-ta-ago-sipi,' but he had not command of 
enough English to tell me what it meant, nor did I afterwards learn. Two miles or 
so below this there is a small rapid, easy of descent, and about 4^^ miles further a 
fall of four or five feet and a portage on the south side 100 yards long. Two hun- 
dred yards below this there is another fall of seven or eight feet, and a portage on 
the south side also about 100 yards long. For about the next four miles the river 
runs between south and south-west to a river which enters from the south. I under- 
stood the guide to say that this stream has its head near the Riviere Blanche, which 
flows into Lake Temiscamingue close to the Quinze River, and that Indians some- 
times go through to Lake Temiscamingue that way. This stream is 60 to 70 yards 
wide at the mouth. 





F7'om Photo, by W. Ogilvie, 
Cave Rock, Yukon River — About 11 Miles Above the Boundary. 



" Here the river turns to a northerly direction, and about five miles from the 
last stream we come to a fall of about fourteen feet, which, I understand, is called 
' Iroquois Falls.' It is said it derived this name from an adventure of some Iroquois 
Indians, many years ago, who were raiding the country, and compelled two native 
women to act as their guides. The women, to save their own people, lulled the sus- 
picions of the raiders when they heard the noise of the fall, by assuring them that 
the noise they heard was caused by the entrance of an affluent stream over a high 
fall, believing which they went on to their destruction. 

" Another version of this story which I heard was that the enforced guides were 
men who assured their captors that the rapids could be easily run by keeping in a 
certain part of the channel, and to prove their sincerity took the lead in a canoe, but 



ii6 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

so acted that all their enemies went over the falls, while they, from their local knowl- 
edge, were able to escape. 

" The first version seems to be a stock story, and is told of several other cataracts ; 
and to speak for myself, I do not think either version very probable, as Indians, as a 
rule, are not apt to run much risk, certainly not in a strange country. 

"The portage past this is on the south side, and is about 140 yards long. The 
course of the river is serpentine, and ranges from about north-west to north-east, 
and about 9^ miles below Iroquois Falls we come to a rapid half-a-mile or so in 
length, with a fall of four or five feet. The only danger in this is from rocks, of 
which there are many, and it requires a sharp outlook to avoid a collision with them, 
especially in low water. The general direction of the river below this rapid is a 
little west of north, and the current is smooth and easy for about i8)4 miles, when 
there is a small ripple 40 or 50 yards long. After passing this the general direction 
is the same for nearly seven miles, when it turns sharply to the west, and we immedi- 
ately enter the Long Sault Rapids. The first three miles of this is only a very swift 
current, which ends at a barrier of granitic 'rock, through a narrow opening in which 
the river tumbles down about seven feet. The portage here is about 40 yards long, 
and is on the south side. Below this there is about three-eighths of a mile of rough 
water, with very, large rocks in it, when the water again takes a plunge of about five 
feet. The portage here is on the south side, and is 100 yards in length. This is 
succeeded by over half-a-mile of bad rapids, rough and stony. 

" Below this for two or three miles there is swift and shallow, but not danger- 
ous, water. In all this rapid I would estimate a fall of about 40 feet. 

" In the bad part, the course of the river turns from west to generally north, 
and continues so for about 7^ miles, when it again turns sharply to the south-west. 
Just at the turn a stream 50 to 60 yards wide enters on the north side. As my guide 
was gone I could not learn anything concerning it. About 5% miles from this 
stream there is a short rapid, midway in which is an island. Fair-sized canoes can 
safely descend this rapid, but there is a portage on the island about 60 yards long. 
Continuing on a south-westerly course about 3^ miles brings us to the next rapid 
and portage. The portage is on the southerly shore, and is 100 yards long. Like 
several of the falls already mentioned, this one is only a contraction of the river by 
a ridge of granite rock, the water-way through it being only one-sixth or one-eighth 
of the average width of the river. The fall is only about three feet, but it is much 
too rough for any canoe to pass through. 

" The river here begins to change from its south-westerly direction and gradu- 
ally curves around to a course nearly north. About a mile below this rapid a river, 
quite as large as the Abitibi, joins it from the south. It is known as Frederick 
House River, and is said to have its source in a lake not far from the head of 
Montreal River, which flows into Lake Temiscamingue. 

"The course of the river from here down for about eighteen or nineteen miles 
is a little west of north, when it again takes a short turn to the west and passes 
through another granite ridge, forming two very bad rapids. To pass these there 
are two portages on the north side of the river — the first 170 yards long, the second 
190. The fall in the first is about ten feet, in the second four or five ; between 
them there is a pond about 200 yards across. After passing these the course is 
again northerly, and for a mile or two the current is smooth and easy, but after that 
the presence of many granitic islands in the river renders it swift, but not rough. 
About two miles of this brings us to another rapid, where again the course changes 
from northerly to westerly, and we pass through a granite ridge. The first port- 
age is on the westerly shore, about 100 yards long, and over level ground. The 
next is across an island in the river, and is about 100 yards long, and is known as 
the Island Portage. The distance between them is 50 or 60 yards. I ran past the 
first one in my canoe. It is easy to run down, but somewhat difficult to stop at 
the island before you are swept into the next rapid, which would quickly engulf a 
canoe. The fall in this rapid is seven or eight feet. The course of the river is 
again northerly ; the current is very easy and the width about 200 yards. About 
fourteen miles from Island Portage a small river joins from the west, known as Red 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



117 



Whitefish River. Three miles further down, the river again turns westerl}^, and 
passes over a succession of rapids, of which I got the following description from an 
employe of the Hudson Bay Company : Two miles below the turn is the first rapid, 
which is a very bad one. The portage past it is on the easterly side of the river, is 
about half a mile in length, with level, good roadway, and is called the Lobstick 
Portage. The next one is a little more than half a mile below this, on the westerly 
side of the river, and is known as the Burnt Wood Portage. It is about 300 yards 
long and over a very rough, rocky surface. The rapids are very bad. This is suc- 
ceeded by about a mile of calm water to the next portage, on the westerly shore, 
about 100 yards long, and over a rock. It is called the Clay Falls. It is along 
the face of a clay slope, and is close to the water's edge in high water ; it is about 
200 yards long. Next comes the Birch Portage, about 100 yards below the Clay 
Falls. It is on the easterly side of the river, about 300 yards long, and over good 
ground. Close to this is the Oil Portage on the same side, also over good ground. 

" In high water it is dangerous to cross from Lobstick to the Burnt Wood, and 
on this account another route is often travelled. This is known as the Little Lakes 
Road. It leaves the river on the east side just where the river turns westerly, and 
300 or 400 yards above a large rock standing on the east side of the river, close 
to where a small creek enters. Once the end of it is found there is no trouble in 
following it, as it is a well-beaten pathway. First there is a portage upwards of a 
mile and a half to a small lake, about 600 yards across ; then a portage of about 
400 yards to another lake, 700 yards or so across, in a westerly direction, where the 




Looking up Yukon Valley from Mountain near Boundary. 



next portage is about 400 yards long, but as it is very crooked it might easily be 
shortened to about half that. The next lake is only about 200 yards wide. It is 
crossed in a north-westerly direction to another portage, 700 yards long, to a pond 
250 yards across, at the extreme westerly end of which we find a portage 2,700 



ii8 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

yards, or a mile and a half long, which brings us again to the river loo yards or so 
below the Oil Portage. This last portage is the greater part of its length in the 
valley of a creek, and is very rough and difficult to travel over. 

" The aggregate distance portaged over on this way is upwards of 8,000 yards, 
or nearly five miles ; while by the river route it is only about 2,000 yards, or less than 
a mile and a quarter. Notwithstanding this, the lake route is much travelled — I 
suppose because most of the canoes in the vicinity are small, and five miles of hard 
travel and a certainty of life at the end are pleasanter than one and a quarter with- 
out that certainty. 

" Below the Oil Portage there is a pond-like expanse in the river before it 
plunges down the canon. This is a veritable canon, being not more than 20 to 30 
yards wide, with perpendicular banks, generally much higher than the channel is 
wide. It is upwards of two miles in length, and, as I only saw the end of it, I 
cannot say much in description of it. I was informed that parts of it cannot be 
seen from the bank, owing to their height and steepness, and as no one would 
care to pass through it simply to possess the privilege of describing it, it is likely 
to remain unpictured for some time. As scenery it is grand and impressive when 
viewed from either end. The portage past it is on the east side, and is over two 
miles long and somewhat difficult, on account of four or five bad hills on it. Below 
the cailon there is another pond-like expanse in the river, which is succeeded by a 
rapid 400 or 500 yards long, and safe enough for ordinary canoes to run, but requir- 
ing alertness at the foot, as it is shallow and stony. The current is now smooth 
and easy ; course between north and north-east for six miles, which brings us to the 
Hudson Bay Company's trading post on this river, named New Post. 

" From New Post, down for about sixteen miles, the Abitibi preserves a gen- 
erally uniform width (150 yards), with smooth, easy current, and general direction 
a little west of north, when its navigability is again interrupted by a succession of 
rapids, which necessitate a portage (on the east side) of fully two miles, with two 
bad hills at the north end. This portage is sometimes divided into two (one about 
a mile, the other less than a quarter), but it does not appear that the difference is 
considered of much advantage. 

" About a mile below this portage is another, also on the east side, 900 yards 
long. The rapid here is not very rough, and can be run in light canoes, but mine 
were too heavily laden. Below this portage there is about a quarter of a mile of 
swift, rough water to run before we get into smooth water again, which, however, 
only continues about two miles, when there is another portage, also on the east side, 
and about 900 yards long. Parties going up sometimes ascend this and the pre- 
ceding rapid in their canoes by keeping in shore and poling. 

" Five miles below the last mentioned rapid we come to the head of a long one, 
in which the river widens to about 600 yards, or about three times its average 
width, and is correspondingly shallow. This rapid is not very rough, but is some- 
what dangerous, by reason of its shallowness and the numerous rocks in it. The 
first part is about three miles long, after which it gets smooth, but is still swift 
and shallow for about 2^ miles, when it again becomes a rapid resembling the 
upper part, and continues so for about 3)4 miles. This rapid is sometimes called 
Long Rapid, but oftener the ' Pudding,' from the resemblance some islands standing 
in it bear to a plum pudding. In this the course of the river is about north, but 
below it it swerves a little eastward. 

" A river called by the Indians 'Abitibi Shi-sipi,' or ' Little Abitibi River,* flows 
in from the east about four miles below this. It is upwards of 100 yards wide 
at the mouth, but is shallow. Continuing the same course about seven miles brings 
us to a shallow rapid of no especial importance, called Blacksmith's Rapids. One 
party told me it was so named because a drunken blacksmith was drowned here 
some years ago, but others gave as the origin of the name the existence of a bed of 
lignite coal, which latter derivation I suppose to be the true one. 

"About a mile below this a river enters from the east, 20 yards or so wide ; 
and about 2^2 miles from this another river, about 40 yards wide at the mouth, 
enters from the west. My guide called it ' 0-nak-o-whan-i-Sipi,' but could not, 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



119 



owing to his ignorance of English, tell me what that meant. About a mile below 
this, what appeared to be a small river was seen on the east side. 

" The general course of the river here is nearly north-east for many miles 
back ; but its character changes, in that there are now numerous islands in it, and 




Looking West from Mountain Top near Boundary. — Yukon at Boundary on Left of View. 

it is wider and often shallow, with some swift currents in the shallow places. The 
same course and character continue for about 29 miles below 0-nak-o-whan-i-Sipi, 
when it spreads into three or four branches and passes down shallow rapids to the 
Moose, or, as the Indians there call it, the ' Mi-tag-ami ' River. One of these 
branches can be run in canoes when the water is high enough, but in low water 
it is too shallow. I passed down the westerly shore, the water barely floating the 
canoe, though it only drew ten or eleven inches. This continues for nearly a mile, 
where just above a rocky point, which throws the water outwards and makes a bad 
swell (and on account of rocks, a passage can hardly be made anywhere else) there 
is a portage of about 500 yards. Below this there are still about 300 yards of 
rapid, which must be descended carefully and slowly on account of shallowness 
and rocks. Just below this we enter Moose River. 



MOOSE RIVER. 

" From its confluence with the Abitibi the course of the stream is about north- 
east. It is about a mile wide, and is, as a rule, shallow. The greater part of the 
channel, for some miles near and below the Abitibi, is not more than two to four feet 
deep, with many gravel bars, and two or three small rapids. 

" From the mouth of the Abitibi to Moose Factory, the Hudson Bay Company's 
trading post, is about twenty miles. A history of this place would hardly serve any 
useful purpose in a report such as this, and I will only remark that the post has 
been in existence about two centuries, and has been for many years, and is now, the 
port of entry for the whole of James Bay district. 



I20 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

" Moose is situated on the east side of an island, the surface of which rises 
about twenty feet above high tide. The top soil is generally a mixture of silt and 
vegetable mould. The island is about half a mile in width, and about two miles 
long. Owing to its position, the many islands in the river here, and the fact that the 
deep water is in the westerly channel, strangers would very likely pass on to the bay 
without noticing the factory. To write down a description of the route to be fol- 
lowed would be somewhat tedious. The only way to do it comprehensively would 
be by courses and distances, which I am not in a position to give exactly. 

" It is said the channel on the easterly side of the islands, although shallow, will 
float a canoe well enough, and by that route it would hardly be possible to pass the 
factory without seeing it. From the easterly side of Moose Island to the east shore 
of the river, at right angles to the general course, is 8i chains (1,782 yards), but in 
this distance there are two extensive sand bars. Between Moose Island and the 
westerly shore there are several islands, and the westerly channel, exclusive of them, 
appears to me to be as wide as that east of Moose Island ; so altogether, the river 
here must be considerably over two miles from shore to shore. 

" The easterly, or South Channel, as it is locally termed, is the one by which all 
the traiflc is carried on. 

" From Moose Factory to where the shore line of James Bay turns sharply east- 
ward is 12^ miles. This part of the river is between two and three miles wide, with 
many timbered islands and sand bars." 

The following extracts from the Hudson Bay Company's Journal at New Post 
show the duration of the navigable season for a period of 13 years : 

1878 — River here clear of ice 20th April ; first snow i8th October; river set 
nth December. 

1879 — River clear of ice 2nd May ; first snow i8th October ; river set ist De- 
cember. 

18S0 — River clear 8th May; first snow 12th November; river set 22nd No- 
vember. 

1881 — River clear of ice 30th April ; first snow 15th October ; river set 5th De- 
cember. 

1882 — River clear nth May ; first snow 30th October ; river set 3rd December. 

1883 — River clear 12th May; first snow ist November; river set i6th No- 
vember. 

1884 — River clear (date not stated, but appears to have been about ist May) ; 
first snow i8th October ; river set 7th December. 

1885 — River clear 4th May; first snow 20th October; river set 24th No- 
vember. 

1886 — River clear 20th April ; first snow 15th October ; river set (not stated). 

1887 — River clear 3rd May ; first snow 24th October ; river set (not stated). 

1888 — River clear nth May; first snow 19th October; river set 20th No- 
vember. 

1889 — River clear 27th April; first snow 23rd October; river set i6th No- 
vember. 

1890 — River clear. 9th May. 

I passed New Post on 20th October, and the temperature of the water was 
46''. I may here state that the temperature of the river water was taken every day 
up to Lake Abitibi, where, on the 28th October, it was 42^^ ; but that day and night 
a strong, cold north-west wind blew, which lowered it to 39*^ in twenty-four hours, 
and at Abitibi post it was the same on the morning of the 30th. In Upper and 
Island Lakes it was from 44° to 46°, according to the depth of the water. In the 
little lake at the summit it was 45^, although quite a lot of snow had fallen during 
the day. The first snow-fall I saw during the time I was in the field was nth 
October, 1890 (the day I left Moose), and the weather all the way to Mattawa was 
continuously rainy with occasional showers of snow. The temperature of the lakes 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 121 

this side of the watershed was from 44'^ to 48° between the ist and i8th November 
— the latter temperature being in the deep part of Lake Temiscamingue, which gen- 
erally does not freeze up until late in December. 

Another part of the proposed route starts from Missinaibi on the C. P. R., 
thence down the Missinaibi River to James Bay at Moose Factory, some 400 miles. 
Arriving at Moose Factory on the south end of James Bay, we now have a distance 
of nearly 900 miles across Hudson Bay, which is only open about half of the year ; 
thence up Chesterfield Inlet and Baker's Lake, a distance of about 200 miles ; thence 
over an unknown and barren country, between 300 and 400 miles to the end of 
Great Slave Lake, which is frozen from early in December until very late in June, 
the ice attaining a thickness of from four to six feet. This lake is about 350 miles 
in length, and in some places as much as 40 miles in width, so that the wind sweep- 
ing down it or up it lengthwise gets up quite a rough sea. This route might be 
amended and made more of an all-water route by making Montreal or other seaport 
the point of departure and going round by the Atlantic Ocean and Hudson Straits, 
and thence across Hudson Bay to Chesterfield Inlet, and from there on as above. 
At the lower end of the lake we enter Mackenzie River, which has been described 
in connection with the Edmonton route ; and the remarks there apply equally to 
this one. 

OCEAN AND RIVER ROUTE. 

The last route to be referred to is the Ocean and River route. 

Starting from Victoria or Vancouver, or some port in the United States, we 
make our way by an ocean steamer to St. Michaels, a distance of about 2,700 
miles from Victoria or Vancouver. The steamer approaches St. Michaels a greater 
or less distance as she draws more or less water. A boat drawing 12 feet of water 
or less may come within a mile of it — one of greater draught has to anchor further 
out. The cargo is discharged on "lighters," towed by small steamers to the ware- 
houses of the several companies. From here up to Dawson or other points on the 
Yukon, passage is made on stern-wheel steamers, of which there are at present seven 
or eight. Four belong to one of the trading companies, three to the other, and one 
or two to other parties. The time taken in ascending the river from St. Michaels to 
Davv^son, supposing we have fair weather continuously, is from 14 to 18 days. The 
steamer has to fight its way up this long stream against a stiff current, with, in low 
water, shallow places at several points, also there is much time lost procuring 
wood. Much of the fuel at present used is cut by Indians, and piled up along the 
banks. For the first 500 miles upwards the fuel consists entirely of driftwood, as 
there is no timber in the vicinity of the river large enough to be utilized for that 
purpose. Above this point timber is plentiful, but green. The boat is tied up to 
the beach, all hands available sent ashore, trees cut down, generally carried on board 
in long lengths, and sawn into proper lengths for furnace use on board. Much of 
this is entirely green, as what little dry wood was scattered along the bank of the 
river has been pretty well used up. In the future much delay will be caused to 
steamers on this account, as the wood gets further and further from the river. 
Heretofore, there were only three or four steamers plying on the river. Next sum- 
mer there will probably be 25 or 30. Now these will use up in a single trip all the 
wood cut, as the steamers now on the river use from 16 or 18 cords per day to 
24 or 30. 

Through the kindness of Capt. Kennedy of the Alaska Commercial Company's 
steamer " Alice," I am able to give her dimensions and the log of one of her trips. 

Capt. Barr of the North American Transportation and Trading Company kindly 
gave me from his logs the distances from point to point along the river as he de- 
duced them from the travelling rate of the steamer. I am inclined to think his dis- 
tances are overestimated and that a survey of the river will prove it shorter than he 
puts it. 

Dimensions of steamer " Alice : " 

Length 165 feet ; beam 32 feet ; depth 8 feet. 

Compound tandem engines, but no condenser, high pressure cylinder, 14-inch 



122 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

bore, low pressure, 22 inch. Length of stroke 6 feet. Steam pressure 150 to i8a 
pounds, consumption of wood per day 16 to 18 cords. She can carry about 500 tons, 
but when so loaded draws too much water for the river (about 5^ feet). In 1896 
she made a trip from St. Michaels to Fortymile as follows ; the distances are by 
Captain Barr : 

St. Michaels to mouth of Yukon, 72 miles, 9 hours 40 minutes. 

Mouth of Yukon to Nulato, 576 miles, 81 hours 30 minutes. 

Nulato to mouth of Tanana, 249 miles, 36 hours 30 minutes. 

Mouth of Tanana to Fort Yukon, 456 miles, 60 hours 25 minutes. 

Fort Yukon to Circle City, 88 miles, 21 hours 10 minutes. 

Circle City to Fortymile, 156 miles, 47 hours 40 minutes. 

Fortymile to Sixtymile, 97 miles, 19 hours 15 minutes. 

This makes the total running time from St. Michaels to Fortymile 255 hours and 
25 minutes, or ten (10) days 15 hours 25 minutes, the distance being 1,597 miles. 
In addition she must have lost 4 to 6 hours at least per day cutting wood and load- 
ing it. 

In the same summer, some weeks later, the same steamer loaded with about 400 
tons, and towing a barge with nearly as much, went over the same course, as follows : 

Mouth of River to Nulato, 102 hours 55 minutes. 

Nulato to Tanana, 37 hours 20 minutes. 

Tanana to Yukon, 69 hours 50 minutes. 

Yukon to Circle City, 31 hours 20 minutes. At Circle City she left the barge 
and came up to Fortymile, in 47 hours and 40 minutes. Going down, her running 
time from Sixtymile to Fortymile was 4 hours and 10 minutes. Fortymile to Circle 
City, 13 hours, and her actual time from Sixtymile to St. Michaels was 4 days lo- 
hours. 

Nearly all future trips will have to be made on wood cut by the crews — green 
at that. 

After we get up the river some 1,300 miles we strike what is known as the 
Yukon Flats. These flats were no doubt the site of a lake ages ago, now filled up 
with numberless islands and channels, most of which are too shallow, crooked and 
narrow for steamboat passage. The sand and mud drifts about in them, changing 
the course of the steamboat channel, and every year appears to be getting more and 
more difficult of navigation. In the summer of 1895 water remained high until well 
into September ; the result was that one of the Alaska Commercial Company's- 
steamers, the " Arctic," made five passages from the mouth of the river to Fortymile. 
This is the record season, it has never been repeated since. The fastest round trip 
on record, from and to St. Michaels, was made by the same Company's steamboat 
" Alice," in 1897. It took less than 22 days. As a rule, the trip occupies a month. 
We may generally count on several days' detention at St. Michaels. There high 
winds render it impossible for river steamers to make their way over Behring Sea to 
the mouth of the river. The same detention may be caused on the return trip, and 
the steamer may have to lie in the mouth of the river for days. Then, again, the 
channel at the mouth is shallow and crooked, and as it is only open for 3 or 3^^ 
months in the year it is impossible to mark it, and even if we could do so it is not 
permanent, for the ice drifting about in the shallow water in Behring Sea often 
ploughs up the mud in ridges, making barriers across places which were heretofore 
good, deep water. On one occasion, in 1896, a boat ran on to a barrier near the 
mouth of the river and lay there for 14 days before the wind and tides combined 
raised the water high enough to enable her to float. To enter the country by this 
route we need not contemplate arrival at Dawson much earlier than the middle of 
July. ^The ice in the river breaks about the middle of May, but Behring Sea, as a 
rule, is not open until the last ten days of June, — indeed, in 1896 it was not until the 
7th of July that the ocean steamer could approach St. Michaels. 

For further details concerning expenses in entering by this route I would refer 
to the Alaska Commercial Company, 310 Sanson St., San Francisco, or the North 
American Transportation and Trading Company, of Chicago. The Canadian Pacific 
Coast Navigation Company — offices at Victoria and Vancouver — I understand^ 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



123 




124 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

are putting steamers on this route, both ocean and river, also the Canadian Pacific 
Kailwa)^ By addressing queries to them I have no doubt parties will obtain the 
fullest information at their command as to their facilities and terms. This route of 
course involves no personal hardship, other than what may be due to ten or twelve 
days' sail on the ocean, but it reduces the working season available there by about 
two months. Going in by the south, one can reach Dawson about the middle of 
May, going in this way about the middle of July. As soon as access is convenient 
and sufficient over some one or more of the passes in the south, so that freight can 
be taken down stream, it is easy to see that this route must be abandoned to a very 
great extent. 

FOOD SUPPLIES, ETC. 

For the information of those who have never been in that country I give some 
notes on the amount of provisions required, first stating that you will require at 
least 50 per cent, more in that region than you would in a more southern latitude. 
The cold suffered (often intense) for at least seven months in the year conduces to 
a vigorous appetite. This is a provision of nature, for in order to keep warm the 
human system has to pile on fuel just as much as any other apparatus where heat is 
required. 

All supplies required for the Yukon by persons going in on the Pacific side can 
be obtained at the cities of Victoria or Vancouver. The merchants at these places 
have had many years' experience in outfitting miners and prospectors, and know 
exactly what a man should take with him, according to the conditions under which 
he is going to travel or work, and know from many years' testing, and from the ex- 
perience of northern explorers who frequent the B. C. cities, what class of goods are 
most desirable and useful, and those best calculated to complete a traveller's outfit. 
Many things that are excellent for more southern districts, and which are sometimes 
sold to inexperienced explorers, are not fitted for the more northern districts of what 
was once Hudson Bay Company's territory. 

The merchants of these coast cities have studied and are thoroughly familiar 
with the requirements of the country, for many parts of which, including the Koot- 
enay, Cassair mines, and other districts, they. have outfitted exploring parties for 
many years past ; by purchasing in either of those two cities for the Pacific journey, 
a considerable percentage of cost is saved in freight duties, etc. The Canadian 
customs duties on goods purchased out of the Dominion range from 25 to 30 per 
cent, alone, so that aside from the question of paying freight on extra baggage, it is 
obvious that a considerable saving is made b}^ purchasing necessary outfit in Canada 
and at the nearest point to the Yukon Territory where such supplies can be pro- 
cured. Those who go into the mountains or into the Yukon from the east side of 
the Rocky Mountains, across the plains via Calgary and Edmonton, will find the 
same conditions to apply. The merchants at the principal points have had a wide 
experience in outfitting people for the mountains. During the past season many 
have chosen this route, and purchased necessary supplies at Calgary and Edmonton, 
at both of which towns there are large outfitting establishments. As between the 
two cities of Calgary and Edmonton a traveller can choose for himself. The cost of 
the several articles he will require will probably be found, freight included, to be 
about the same. It will be well to remember, therefore, that it is better that Yukon 
outfits should be purchased at Victoria, or Vancouver, if the purchaser is going in 
on the Pacific side, and at Calgary or Edmonton, or other Canadian point, if he is 
proceeding by the plains route. The articles that should be taken are : 

Of flour we require at least 450 pounds for a year's consumption. This should 
be of fairly good grade. It need not necessarily be fine flour, but should be good 
medium. Oatmeal or rolled oats, 50 pounds ; cornmeal, 25 pounds. This latter I 
do not consider so necessary as oatmeal, as oatmeal is a warming food. Bacon 
(good, fat), 250 pounds ; hams, 50 pounds ; evaporated dried apples, 25 pounds ; 
dried peaches, 25 pounds, and if you have a fancy for any other kind of dried fruits 
you can take them along, or substitute them for one or other of the above. Good 
b.lack tea, 25 pounds. In that country you will find a cup of good, hot, black tea 



THE YUKON DISTRICT 



125 



after a long, cold tramp, very invigorating — in fact, it proves " the cup that cheers 
but not inebriates." Coffee, 10 pounds ; sugar (good granulated), 100 pounds. If 
you take the ordinary brown sugar in the winter it freezes into a hard lump and is 
very difficult to manipulate. Not so with granulated ; it remaining dry, of. course 
remains powdered. Beans, 120 pounds. There are several kinds of beans of which 
you may make choice according to your taste, but the ordinary bean sold there is the 
brown bean, about twice the size of the small white one. Pot barley, 10 pounds ; 
rice, 15 pounds ; extract of beef, two dozen four ounce tins. I have found Johnson's 
Fluid Beef to be very good. Baking powder 12 or 15 pounds; salt, 30 pounds; 
pepper, one pound ; mustard, one pound ; compressed vegetables, 10 or 12 pounds, 
depending upon the kind you take. Canned fruits may or may not be taken, but they 
are bulky and heavy, consequently inconvenient and in winter a source of trouble in 
that country, as the contents freeze solid and require a very long time to thaw. You 
should also take 10 or 15 or more pounds of baking soda, as you may think neces- 
sary. In case of scurvy one might provide lime juice, more or less as their tastesug- 
gests, but the dried fruits already named are antiscorbutic in their action and if we 
wish to make further provision in that direction we might take two or three dozen 
tins of good orange marmalade, and a similar quantity of strawberry or raspberry 
jam. These, as put up by some firms, are very good. Dried potatoes are put up in 
several forms and are good ; 25 or 30 pounds of these should be taken. Other 
vegetables are put up also from which you may select as you fancy, but you should 
take the above quantity of potatoes and 8 or 10 pounds of dried onions. Take 
along also a few dozen yeast cakes, you may have a chance to use thena once ui 
awhile, and their weight and cost are trifling. For convenience I recapitulate, in 
list form : — 



Flour, 

Oatmeal, 

Cornmeal, 

Bacon (Good, fat), . . 

Hams, 

Evaporated dried apples. 
Dried peaches, . . 

Tea, 

Coffee, 

Sugar, 

Beans, 

Barley (pot), .... 
Rice, 



450 pou 

5° 

25 

250 

50 

25 

25 

25 

10 
100 
120 

10 

IS 



nds. Extract Beef, say . 
Baking powder, 
Salt, ..... 
Pepper, .... 
Mustard, .... 
Compressed vegetables. 
Canned fruits, say . . 
Jams in tins, i lb. each, 
Baking soda. 
Potatoes and Onions, 

Total weight, . . 



6 pounds. 

12 " 

30 " 

I " 

I " 
12 

30 " 

24 " 

10 

-.c " 
o5 



,319 pounds. 



This will prove ample and to spare for any healthy, vigorous man, work as 
hard as he may, but it is well to have a little too much rather than too little. It is 
well also to bear in mind that there is much waste connected with the ordinary 
transport and use of provisions under the conditions generally attending prospect- 
ing and the cooking incidental to it. It will be noticed that the above list contains 
no canned meats. These are sometimes convenient when making a journey, and 
their use is largely a matter of taste. Some relish them, while others have " no 
use " for them. In this line, as in some other matters, each will consult his own 
tastes and means. Packed in tins as they are, they are somewhat inconvenient to 
pack, and the tin adds considerably to the weight. For preservation it is abso- 
lutely necessary that the stuff be hermetically sealed. It is a pity some more con- 
venient mode of putting up were not adopted, lessening the weight, while not risk- 
ing spoiling by contact with the air. The cost of this outfit will, of course, vary 
considerably, according to time and place of purchase, but in any of the cities or 
towns where you are likely to purchase all your requirements will likely cost no 
more than $200.00, and maybe less. At the prices ruling on the Yukon it will be 
more than double that ; $450.00 is rated as a fair " grub stake," that is your require- 
ment for one year. 



126 



CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 



The following list and prices are furnished by an Edmonton firm, subject, of 
course, to fluctuations in the ruling prices elsewhere, which will not, however, affect 
the gross amount very much. Taken as a whole the amount will not differ much 
from the same list at other points. 



4 Sacks flour, 98 lbs. each, . . $10.00 

20 lbs. Corn meal, .70 

40 lbs. Rolled oats, 1.30 

25 lbs. I. Rice, 1.75 

100 lbs. Beans, 4.50 

75 lbs. G. Sugar, 4.87 

75 lbs. Evap. apricots, peaches 

and apples, 10.25 

6 Pkgs. Yeast cakes, .... .50 

20 lbs. Candles, 3.00 

150 lbs. Bacon, 16.50 

25 lbs. Butter, 3.75 

10 lbs. Baking powder, . . . 2.50 

3 Pkgs. Soda, 30 

20 lbs. Salt, .40 

1 lb. Pepper, .25 

Yz lb. Mustard, .25 

^ lb. G. Ginger, ..... .25 

10 Pkgs. Evap. Vegetables, . . 2.00 

2 Doz. Cond. Milk, ..... 4.50 

10 lbs. Tea, . 4.00 

25 lbs. Coffee, 10.00 

% Doz. Abbey's Effervescent Salt, 3.60 

Laundry soap, ...... i.oo 

Matches, .80 

Evap. Potatoes and onions, . . 4.00 

2 Pair Heavy blankets, . . . . 14.00 

2 Suits underwear, ..... 5.00 

2 Cottonade shirts, ..... 1.50 

2 Sweaters, ....... 3.00 

I Heavy suit, . 7.50 

1 Pair pants, ....... 2.00 

I Pair overalls, 1.25 

1 Mackinaw suit, ..... 10.00 

2 Pair Arctic sox, ..... 1.50 

6 Pair wool sox, ...... 1.50 

2 Pair mitts, ....... i.oo 

2 Pair moccasins, ..... 3.00 

3 Towels, , .75 

I Pair rubber boots, hip, . . . 5.00 

I Pair laced boots, miner's, . . 5.00 

Mosquito net, .50 



Brought forward, . . 

Buttons, needles and thread, 
I Camp cook stove, . . 
I Gold Pan, 

1 Knife and fork, ... 

2 Spoons, 

I Large granite spoon, 

I Large fork 

I Granite cup, . . . . , 
I Granite plate, .... 

I Whetstone, 

I Pick and handle, ... 
I Hatchet and handle, . . 
I Axe and handle, . . . , 

I Whip saw, 

I X Cut saw, 

I Hand saw, . 

1 L. H. Shovel, 

20 lbs. nails, ...... 

2 Files, 

I Draw knife, ...... 

I Plane, 

Brace and bits, . . . . ; 

3 Chisels, ....... 

I Butcher knife, 

I Compass, 

Rope, 

I Fry Pan, 

I Hammer, ...... 

I Auger, 

I Bake kettle, 

I Best copper kettle, , . . 

I Steel pail, 

I Granite wash basin, . . . 
I Candle lantern, . . . , 
I lb. Quicksilver, . . . . 
I Pair Goggles, . . . . , 

I Caulking iron, 

10 lbs. Pitch, 

15 lbs. Oakum, 

Sundries 



)i53-o7 



F53-07 

•25 
5.00 

•75 
•15 
•05 
•15 
.10 

•15 
•15 
.10 

1-25 

•75 

125 

9.00 

3-5° 
I.oo 
I.oo 
I.oo 

.40 

•75 

.90 

2.00 

•75 

■25 

■50 

150 

•25 

•50 

•65 

1-50 

6.00 

•75 
.40 

•35 
.90 

•25 

•75 
I.oo 
2.00 
2.18 

^203.20 



A few words on packing, or putting up the goods for transport may be of use 
to many. Flour should be put in a good cotton sack, 50 pounds in a sack ; two of 
those are then put into a good strong gunny sack. For ordinary transport this is 
not more than enough, and for prospecting tours one of the 50 pound sacks inside 
the gunny sack will be found quite sufficient. Sugar, beans, rice, barley, meal and 
bacon may be packed in the same way, with advantage. 

I would not recommend oiled cotton for covering, the oiUng seems to rot the 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 127 

cotton fibre and render it easily torn, besides in cold weather it is as brittle as glass, 
and the result is we have no covering at all in a few days. 

The gunny cloth, if good and heavy, will exclude quite a lot of rain. In the case 
of flour a thin layer of it will get wet and form a dough which excludes water almost 
perfectly ; that amount of flour is, of course, lost, but that is provided for in the 
amount above given. In wet weather sugar will have to be carefully looked after, 
as once wet the action seems to continue until the whole is converted into syrup if 
the temperature permits, and if it does not it is frozen into a mass as hard as rock. 
These remarks may be in a good degree applied to salt, and I would say emphatically 
look after your sugar and salt. Compressed tea offers the advantage of less bulk, 
and if it is not taken, get tea put up in pound tins as some of it used to be. This is 
convenient in use, as only a small quantity of it is opened at one time, and we ob- 
viate deterioration of a large amount of it through exposure. 

The other articles may be packed in cases for transport into the country, and 
then put up to suit convenience. Care should be exercised that none of the cases 
weigh much over one hundred pounds until we have better transport facilities than 
at present exist. That is about all the ordinary untrained man wants to handle and 
for some months to come there will be much manual labour in connection with trans- 
port there. 

Bedding and other things of that kind one will have to provide as suits his 
peculiar needs. 

In the way of clothing, the principal difference between that country and. this is 
that one requires much heavier underclothing. The ordinary woollen garments, such 
as worn by lumbermen and others in this climate, are sufficiently heavy for that, ex- 
cept when travelling on the open or on the rivers, in which case some sort of fur is 
necessary, more especially if it is blowing. Ordinary woollen coats will not keep out 
the winds, and when the thermometer is 40 or 50 below zero, and a 20 to 30 mile 
wind blowing, one is not very long exposed before considerable suffering ensues. 









•fe-^".^- 






-^dJ^ 



From Photo, by IV. Ogilvie. 
Near the Boundary. — One-half of the Previous Day's Bag. — Alaska, Canada. 



128 



CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 




St. Michaels from the East. 



Fro/n Photo, by W, Ogilvie. 



Good heavy woollen mitts, with a pair of deerskin mitts over them, is all that is re- 
quired. In the way of bedding a good heavy fur blanket is almost indispensable ; 
ordinary woollen blankets, no matter how many one has, will not keep warm. But in 
this there is a wide latitude, depending on differences of physical constitution. I 
have seen two men in the same tent at the same time with the same amount of bed- 
ding, one sleepless from cold and the other comfortable, hence, as I said before, each 
will have to determine for himself as suits his temperament ; of course the less one 
can do with the more convenient it is. 

Blankets have been made in that country of fox, lynx, wolf and bearskin. They 
are very expensive, costing from $60 to $120, depending upon the nature of the fur 
and the size of the blanket. In the future, however, they are absolutely out of the 
question, for the supply of fur there is constantly diminishing, and it is only a ques- 
tion of a year or two until none will be found in the vicinity of the diggings, nor 
anywhere near them. These should be procured, if possible, here. Lynx makes a 
very durable, light, warm blanket, and I would recommend it above all others on ac- 
count of its lightness and warmth. Fox is good, but not so durable as lynx. Wolf 
is also good, but heavier, and not so warm as lynx, and the same may be said of 
bearskin. I have no doubt that necessity will induce manufacturers to devise some 
cheap substitute for fur. Sleeping bags are made which will be useful and comforta- 
ble. Of these I would say choose the one that gives you the most thickness between 
you and the ground, of course not neglecting the covering. Often in winter, when 
camping out, more cold is felt from below than above. Waterproof clothing is not 
suitable for that country in the winter. The intense frosts so harden it that it cracks, 
and soon breaks into pieces. A good, large raccoon skin overcoat is very desirable. 
It is cheap and durable. While travelling in cold winter weather your knees will 
give you more trouble than any other part of the body. I have found a fur covering 
for them resembling a section of the leg of a pants, about one foot long, and fast- 
ened to your under garment so as to cover the knee, is all that is required. What- 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



129 



ever material is used it should be wind-proof and thick. The other things that one 
may require will have to suggest themselves to each one for himself, but too much 
need not be taken. Do not load yourself down with extras. Rubber boots are in- 
dispensable during the spring, summer and fall months. These can be procured in 
the country at from $10 to $14 per pair, that is, miners' boots, which come up the 
full length of the leg. Shorter ones cost less, of course. These may be taken as 
they can be procured cheaper, but there is nearly always a good assortment on hand 
at the trading points. 

In the way of hardware one requires a couple of good chopping axes. Axes are 
sold with a double bit — that is, a double edged axe of which one maybe kept in fair 
order for chopping and the other used for rougher work. A brace and set of bits is 
indispensable, ranging from ^ to i^ inches in size. Hammer and wire nails, 
different sizes, are also indispensable ; the more you can take of these the better, but 
of course the quantity will have to be regulated by your transport facilities. A small 
hand-saw is absolutely necessary, with an assortment of screw nails of different sizes, 
and suitable screw drivers, and a i or i^ inch auger will prove very useful. A miners' 
pick is also indispensable, and a miners' shovel. Of rope we require 25 or 30 pounds 
of assorted sizes, from one-quarter inch up to one inch, and if we contemplate build- 
ing a boat for ourselves, a whipsaw, oakum and pitch. Of the latter, 10 to 20 pounds 
may be taken and 5 to 10 of the oakum. The other articles of hardware, such as 
dishes, knives, forks, spoons, kettles, etc., each one will have to select for himself. 
His supply should be based on his prospecting intentions and the length of time he 
expects to be absent from points of trade. 

A rifle and shotgun may prove useful and are a sort of necessity, but as a rule 
they prove of very little use, as game is seldom met with, and what little there is, one 
has no time to follow. Hunting is an art which requires long experience to develop. 
Occasionally one obtains a shot at a moose or caribou, but these are often accidental, 
and your gun may be carried for years without benefiting you one dollar. Still, by 




From Photo, hv IV. Osrilvie. 



Alaska Commercial Co.'s Wharf, St. Michaels. 



13° 



CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 




Frotii Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 
The North American Transportation and Trading Co.'s Steamer "Charles H. 
Hamilton " on the Blocks a few days before Launching. 



all means take them along. You may require them, you never know when, and when 
you do require them you require them in earnest. Fishing hooks and lines may be 
taken, but of these it may be said as of the guns. 

Needles, thread, and yarn and cloth for mending and patching, are required, of 
course, and each one will have to determine for himself the amount he needs. You 
cannot make a mistake by taking more than you actually contemplate using, as the 
weight and bulk is unimportant. A small medicine chest is imperative. For con- 
tents of this I would suggest medical advice. What would suit one, another would 
not require, and each will have to have determined for himself and for his peculiar 
case just what he should take. Paper, envelopes, pens, ink and pencils are neces- 
sary, as you should never neglect to write whenever possible ; by all means keep up 
the connection with home. If you can procure powders for making ink take them, 
as most of the inks sold are injured by frost, besides the liability to break your bottle 
when it does freeze. 

A pocket compass is useful, and if you take one take a good one, with a needle not 
less than an inch and a half to two inches in length, and when selecting take the needle 
which takes the longest time to settle after being put oscillating. The one which set- 
tles quickly is useless. It may be stated generally that the magnetic needle points 
east of true north from 32^ degrees at Lake Lindeman to 36^ at the boundary. 

In moving about the country a boat is absolutely necessary. There are no regu- 
lar lines of steamers on the main river at present, though possibly there may be the 
coming season, and if there are they will only take us along the main stream from 
one of the minor streams to another, as we may desire. Landed at the mouth of a 
small stream, we require some sort of a boat to make progress in. Now boats made 
there are necessarily heavy and imperfect in construction, also of bad form. I would 
advise taking some light, easily portable boat from here or elsewhere, as one may 
procure it easiest and best. In my opinion the best boat for general use in that 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



131 



country is of the canoe form, many of which are built in the Province of Ontario and 
elsewhere. The pattern I would suggest is commonly known as the Peterborough, 
or Rice Lake canoe, of which many kinds are made. Bass wood is the best wood 
for all round use. I give the dimensions of some of them. 

A 17 foot canoe, 41 inches wide and 17 inches deep, will weigh about 130 or 140 
pounds when dry. This canoe v.'ill carry twelve or fourteen hundredweight, and 
two or three men. Of course this will load it pretty well, and if our load is bulky it 
requires some experience to stow it away in a boat of that size. Practice soon over- 
corhes this. 

An 18 foot canoe, 43 inches wide and 18 inches deep, will weigh a little more, 
and carry a hundred or two hundred more pounds easily. 

A 19 foot canoe, 46 or 47 inches wide and 18 inches deep, will weigh when dry 
about 175 or 180 pounds, and will easily and safely carry eighteen or twenty hun- 
dredweight and two or three men. 

Larger ones are made of which I give some figures. 



Length. 


Width. 


Depth. 


Weight. 


Capacity. 


Price. 


21 feet 


49 


inches 


18 


inches 


135 lbs. 


2200 lbs. 


$51.00 to $57.00 


22 " 


50 


u 


18 


(( 


140 " 


2500 " 


54.00 to 60.00 


23 " 


51 


a 


18 


a 


145 " 


2700 " 


57.00 to 63.00 


24 " 


52 


i( 


18 


anc 


150 " 
)ther make 


2900 " 


60.00 to 66.00 


,23 " 


50 


i( 


24 


(( 


275 " 


2850 at 12" 
5120 at 20" 


draft ) ^ im 
draft [ ^°^^ ^58.00 


25 " 


50 


a 


24 


u 


300 " 


3200 at 12" 
5600 at 20" 


draft ) , , 
, r^r cost 60.00 
draft \ 


,30 " 


50 


li 


24 


il 


350 " 


3800 at 12" 
6500 at 20" 


draft ) 

draft} ^°^t 75.00 




Nulato, Lower Yukon, Alaska. 



oto. by IV. Ogilvie. 
■Steamer "J. J. Healey '■ at the Beach. 



132 CANADA'.S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

The above weights were furnished me by the makers. The weights in the 
paragraphs preceding the list are from my own observation after the canoe had 
been used awhile. In actual use the water the wood absorbs will increase it lo to 
20 pounds. 

The freight rates on those canoes from where they are made in Ontario to 
Vancouver, is about $2.65 per 100 pounds space weight, with a minimum weight 
charge of 800 pounds, or, in other words, you are charged for the space the boat 
occupies. Now, by nesting them, that is, taking several of the different sizes, the 
smaller ones inside the larger ones, say a 22 foot, 21 foot, 19 foot, and 18 foot, 
space weight, crate and all, about the limit — 800 pounds — costs $21.20, or about 
$5.30 each. If you wish to pay for actual weight the charge is about $10.50 per 
hundred pounds. Nesting is by far the best way to send them, and large parties 
going can have their canoes put up that way with lessened risk in transport, and 
less cost than if sent singly. This I would advise to be done. In ordering a 
canoe, order with an 18 or 19 foot canoe 5 or 6 good, specially heavy paddles, not 
less than 5 feet 9 inches long. If any of the makers manufacture poles for poling, 
I would advise those to be taken along too. They should be made of good, straight- 
grained white ash or other light, strong wood, from 8 to 10 feet in length, about 
i^ inches thick at the lower end or point, tapering to about i^ or i^ at the top 
on which a round knob should be left, say 1% inches in diameter. . The point 
should have a socket steel point put on over the wood and fastened to it with a 
screw, so as to be easily taken off. These will prove convenient on our journeys for 
other uses than poling, and much more durable and handy than any we may get 
in the country. Also procure a canvas cover of sufficient size to cover the canoe 
completely, so made that it can be fastened down when necessary and prevent 
wind blowing it away. This may be ordered from the makers with advantage, 
they having the benefit of their own and others' experience. It will prove very 
useful, and often save us unloading our boat during a rainy period. Down stream 
in one of these boats is easy work. In making our way up stream we have to 
resort generally to poling or tracking, as the current is generally too swift to be 
surmounted by paddling. Poles can be got in the country, but if they can be 
procured at the makers, as above stated, by all means take them. Unless they 
are iron-shod they soon what is called " brush " at the point, that is, the soft 
wood bruises and gets brushy. This has to be cut off from time to time, and the 
pole is soon reduced in length by this constant wearing. By all means get them 
iron pointed, or steel is still better. Several kinds of points are made, but a good 
blacksmith will easily and quickly turn out a half-dozen or more socket points 
to be fastened on with a screw or nail at very little expense, and any kind, so long 
as it covers the end of the pole, and is capable of being securely fastened to it, 
is good enough. 

In poling the boat or canoe, the poler stands up, puts the end of his pole to the 
bottom and shoves on it, the man in the stern steering the canoe as may be desired 
while still shoving. To the uninitiated this is a very difficult and laborious work, 
but a little practice soon gets one into the knack of it, and it is wonderful how a boat 
can be propelled by two or three men who are accustomed to this work. As much 
as 30 or 35 miles per day has been done, but the unaccustomed would probably tire 
themselves out in one-third of that. Where the water is deep, that is, more than 
three feet, which is a fair depth, or where the bottom is too soft for poling, as in mud 
the pole sinks into it and is difficult to withdraw ; in fact, the withdrawal often nul- 
lifies the effect of the push and the boat stands still, and the beach is suitable for 
walking on, we resort to tracking, — that is, a small, strong line is attached to the 
side of the boat some three to six feet from the bow ; another line, called a bridle, is 
fastened to the bow and to the hauling line four or more feet forward from where it 
is attached to the boat. If this line is properly attached the boat will steer itself. 
The hauling line being attached to the side of the boat tends to draw the bow out so 
that she will run across stream, but the bridle counteracts this, and with proper 
adjustment the result is that the boat follows along a few feet out from the shore. It 
requires very little attention from the man steering — in fact, the only attention he 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



^33 




F7-0III Photo, by JF. Ogilvic. 
Presbyterian Mission, Anvick, Lower Yukon, Alaska. 



bestows on it is to see that it avoids rocks, trees and otlier obstacles along the beach, 
and in rounding points he has to manipulate the boat to keep her away from the 
point. This is by far the easier mode of taking a boat up stream. Two men haul- 
ing on a line on a fair beach will walk from 2 i/^ to 3 miles per hour, if they so desire, 
and haul the boat up bad places with comparative ease. I have seen a boat taken 
up a pretty steep rapids in this way at a good smart rate. After the pair on the line 
have kept up this gait for half-an-hour or an hour they become warm and somewhat 
tired. With a party of four the two in the boat change places with those on the line, 
taking a similar spell as it is called, and those on the line take their places in the 
boat. When the last two become tired and warm they take a spell in the boat again, 
and so on. Thus between hauling and resting, they can keep up a good smart gait 
without fatiguing themselves very much. Four lively, good men, along a fair beach, 
will generally be able to haul a boat or canoe, such as I have described, 25 or 30 
miles per day, and at the end not feel nearly so fatigued as paddling or poling would 
make them. A greater number, of course, will have an easier time, and less a 
harder time, but two men can do a good day's work in this way. Myself and a man 
have made 24 miles up stream in a day in this way, and made a survey while doing 
it. The line should be light and very strong. To haul an 18 or 19 foot canoe of 45 
or 48 inch beam, with 10 or 12 hundredweight and two men, the line should not be 
more than one-eighth of an inch in thickness. Of course, its quality should be first- 
class. There are lines made which suit this purpose admirably, known as cod-lines. 
I cannot give the numbers of the various sizes, but simply say a line one-eighth of 
an inch thick is sufificient to haul a boat of that size with a load anywhere that a boat 
can be taken. Of Course, a heavier boat requires a somewhat heavier line, but I have 
seen boats 40 to 45 feet long and 9 feet beam, loaded with 8 or 10 tons, drawing two 
feet of water, hauled up strong currents by a line not more than one-fourth of an inch 
in thickness. The objection to a heavier line is that its weight sags it, and unless 



134 



CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 



the current is very strong it is continually sinking into the water, which increases its 
weight. This renders it liable to catch on sticks, tree tops, rocks or other things 
which are generally found plentifully strewn along the river banks. The men on 
shore will soon acquire the knack of flinging the line over any obstacle of that kind 
providing it is not too heavy. A sharp upward jerk will hoist it feet above anything 
we desire to avoid if given at the right time. To do this the bow of the canoe should 
be turned across current just before the line is thrown up. This holds the canoe out 
against the effect of the pull on the line, often a high tree top or other obstacle can 
be passed easily by turning the boat out into the current ; this runs her up and out, 
so that if the obstacle is close to shore it is passed without any attention from the 
men hauling. 

Care should be taken when the boat is running up in an eddy below a point with 
a swift current rushing past it, to enter the boat or canoe into the current as nearly as 
possible bow on, and not across the current ; by entering this way into the current 
gradually, no time is lost and no risk is run. I have known several boats to be 
swamped by running them up the eddy as far as possible, and suddenly turning them 
into the swift current ; the result being the water boiled over the side of the boat 
and filled her. Had the men given way on the hauling line in time this would not 
have happened, or had the line parted as a light line would have done, all would have 
been well. I call particular attention to this and its attendant risks. A little prac- 
tice will soon enable one to do this. Take plenty of line for that purpose, but do not 
take it too heavy. As a rule, not less than 60 feet of line should be out even under 
the best conditions, and in rough water, or along a bad shore, more is required. Not 
less than 120 feet should be ready for use when required, so fastened that whenever 
required it can be let out quickly and free from knots and twists. There are several 
ways of doing this. One is to have the line wound around a reel or bit of board at 
the front end, which the hauling man can pay out as he deems necessary, and wind 
in again when he sees fit. Cotton line is unsuitable. The water has a bad effect on 
it. It soon cuts and rots, and is not so strong as good jute line. 




Unalaska from West End. 



From Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



135 




From Photo, by W. Ogilvie. 

Dutch Harbour, Unalaska Island. — H. M. S. Pheasant at Anchor in the Bay ; Str. Humboldt 
at Wharf and Str. Excelsior alongside. 



TENTS. 

Of course each one has his own idea of a tent, but experience has taught me 
that the simpler the tent is in construction the better. I would suggest a bell tent 
not less than lo feet in diameter, with a lo ounce duck roof, and an eight ounce 
duck wall. The wall to be 2 >4 or 3 feet in height, with a foot or more of sod cloth. 
The pitch of the tent should be pretty sharp to throw off the rain. I would not 
have it less than 9 or 10 feet in height. Better than this, a square tent, called the 
"Egyptian" tent, 10 feet on each side, with a 10 ounce roof and 8 ounce wall, as 
in the bell tent. Of course a smaller tent may be ordered, but this will prove a 
good serviceable size, and will not be too heavy to pack around, and will accommo- 
date three or four men conveniently. The square, or Egyptian tent, will accommo- 
date four men and quite an amount of outfit. One man can hoist one of these 
tents readily by driving in four stakes in the form of a square at the proper distance 
apart, fastening four of his guy lines on them, inserting his pole and raising the tent. 
Afterwards he can adjust the other guy lines and fasten them as required. A pole 
can always be got ; it is needless to carry them. I would advise a large party tak- 
ing several of these tents instead of one large one. They are easier to carry about 
and the party can separate, break itself into units, so to speak, for prospecting 
purposes. For a party of two a smaller tent will do. Tents should be provided 
before entry. Material for their construction is expensive, and the supply limited 
in that country. The cost of making them is also much more than here. If pos- 
sible have the door made mosquito-proof. This is easily done by attaching a piece 
of cotton gauze or very light cotton cloth to each side of the door, which can be. 
folded together and tied up with tape fastened to the walls to support it. This 
will prove a great comfort. To exclude them effectually we must load down our 



136 CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 

sod cloth well, or they will make entry that way. They will get in in most surpris- 
ing ways and places. 

In conclusion, I would say, make your outfit as simple and serviceable as pos- 
sible. Do not meddle with notions designed to overcome this, that or the other 
difficulty, as they very often create more trouble than that we take them to obvi- 
ate. Metallic boats I would specially warn against. They may be light, capacious 
and useful, but they are easily fractured and difficult to mend, while a wooden boat 
can be mended at almost any time and place, and breaks and fractures may be con- 
fidently looked forward to. If bass wood canoes are taken, some pieces of the plank- 
ing, should be taken along for mending with. Some rough lengths, which would not 
be of much service in the construction of a boat or canoe, can easily be carried in 
the bottom. When a break is made in a canoe, if the parts are not too much 
fractured, they may be coated with white lead on the broken edges, pushed back 
to their original positions, a piece of the planking cut to overlap the fracture, 
coated with white lead, put over it on the inside and nailed and clinched tight to it. 
This makes it as strong as ever. Should the break be too bad to do this with, the 
fractured parts should be cut out neatly with a bevel on the cut edge ; a piece of 
planking cut bevelled edge to fit this hole is put into it, after coating the edge with 
white lead, and another piece put over it on the inside, as before, so as to lap over 
the cut joint, and nailed and clinched, will make the boat as sound as new, and it 
is only the work of an hour or less. 



REGULATIONS 

(-xOVERNING PLACER MINING IN THE PROVISIONAL DISTRICT OF YUKON, 
NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES. 

{^Approved by Order in Council of i8th January, i8g8. ) 



INTERPRETATION. 



"Free Miner" shall mean a male or female over the age of eighteen but not under that age, or 
joint stock company, named in, and lawfully possessed of, a valid existing free miner's certificate, and 
no other. 

"Legal post" shall mean a stake standing not less than four feet above the ground and flatted on 
two sides for at least one foot from the top. Both sides so flatted shall measure at least four inches 
across the face. It shall also mean any stump or tree cut off and flatted or faced to the above height 
and size. 

" Close season " shall mean the period of the year during which placer mmmg is generally sus- 
pended. The period to be fixed by the Mining Recorder in whose district the claim is situated. 

"Mineral " shall include all minerals whatsoever other than coal. 

"Joint Stock Company" shall mean any company incorporated for mining purposes under a Cana- 
dian charter or licensed by the Government of Canada. 

"Mining Recorder" shall mean the official appointed by the Gold Commissioner to record applica- 
tions and grant entries for claims in the Mining Divisions into which the Commissioner may divide the 
Yukon District. 

FREE MINERS AND THEIR PRIVILEGES. 

1. Every person over, but not under eighteen years of age, and every joint stock company, shall 
be entitled to all the rights and privileges of a free miner, under these regulations and under the regula- 
tions governing quartz mining, and shall be considered a free miner upon taking out a free miner's cer- 
tificate. A free miner's certificate issued to a joint stock company shall be issued in its corporate name. 
A free miner's certificate shall not be transferable. 

2. A free miner's certificate may be granted for one year to run from the date thereof or from the 
expiration of the applicant's then existing certificate, upon the payment therefor of the sum of $10.00, 
unless the certificate is to be issued in favour of a joint stock company, in which case the fee sha,ll be 
fifty dollars for a company having a nominal capital of f 100,000 or less, and for a company having a 
nominal capital exceeding $xoo,ooo, the fee shall be one hundred dollars. Only one person or joint 
stock company shall be named in the certificate. 

3. A free miner's certificate shall be on the following form : 

DOMINION OF CANADA. 

FREE MINER'S CERTIFICATE. 

(Non-transferable. ) 
Date.... No 

Valid for one year only. 

This is to certify that of has paid me this day the sum 

of and is entitled to all the rights and privileges of a free miner, under any 

mining regulations of the Government of Canada, for one year from the day 

of .18 

This certificate shall also grant to the holder thereof the privilege of fishing and shooting, subject to 
the provisions of any Act which has been passed, or which may hereafter be passed for the protection of 
game and fish ; also the privilege of cutting timber for actual necessities, for building houses, boats, and 
for general mining operations ; such timber, however, to be for the exclusive use of the miner himself, 
but such permission shall not extend to timber which may have been heretofore or which may hereafter 
be granted to other persons or corporations. 

4. Free miner's certificates may be obtained by appUcants in person at the Department of the In- 
terior, Ottawa, or from the agents of Dominion Lands at Winnipeg, Manitoba, Calgary, Edmonton 
Prince Albert, in the North-west Territories ; Kamloops and New Westminster, in the Province of 
British Columbia ; at Dawson City in the Yukon District ; also from agents of the Government at Van- 
couver and Victoria, B. C, and at other places which may from time to time be named by the Minister 
of the Interior. u n 

5. If any person or joint stock company shall apply for a free miner's certificate at the agent s 
office during his absence, and shall leave the fee required by these regulations with the officer or other 
person in charge of said office, he or it shall be entitled to have such certificate from the date of such 
application ; and any free miner shall at any time be entitled to obtain a free miner's certificate com- 
mencing to run from the expiration of his then existing free miner's certificate, provided that when he 

137 



138 REGULATIONS. 

applies for such certificate he shall produce to the agent, or in case of his absence shall leave with the 
officer or other person in charge of the agent's office, such existing certificate. 

6. If any free miner's certificate be accidentally destroyed or lost, the owner thereof may, on pay- 
ment of a fee of two dollars, have a true copy of it, signed by the agent, or other person by whom or 
out of whose office the original was issued. Every such copy shall be marked " Substituted Certificate"; 
and unless some material irregularity be shown in respect thereof, every original or substituted free 
miner's certificate shall be evidence of all matters therein contained. 

7. No person or joint stock company will be recognized as having any right or interest in or to 
any placer claim, quartz claim, mining lease, bed-rock flume grant, or any minerals in any ground com- 
prised therein, or in or to any water right, mining ditch, drain, tunnel, or flume, unless he or it and 
every person in his or its employment shall have a free miner's certificate unexpired. And on the expira- 
tion of a free miner's certificate the owner thereof shall absolutely forfeit all his rights and interest in or 
to any placer claim, mining lease, bed-rock flume grant, and any minerals in any ground comprised there- 
in, and in or to any and every water right, mining ditch, drain, tunnel, or flume, which may be held or 
claimed by such owner of such expired free miner's certificate, unless such owner shall, on or before the 
day following the expiration of such certificate, obtain a new free miner's certificate. Provided, never- 
theless, that should any co-owner fail to keep up his free miner's certificate, such failure shall not cause a 
forfeiture or act as an abandonment of the claim, but the interest of the co-owner who shall fail to keep 
up his free miner's certificate shall, ipso facto, be and become vested' in his co-owners, pro rata, accord- 
ing to their former interests ; provided, nevertheless, that a shareholder in a joint stock company need 
not be a free miner, and, though not a fr«e miner, shall be entitled to buy, sell, hold, or dispose of any 
shares therein. 

8. Every free miner shall, during the continuance of his certificate, but not longer, have the right 
to enter, locate, prospect, and mine for gold and other minerals upon any lands in the Yukon District, 
whether vested in the Crown or otherwise, except upon Government reservations for town sites, land 
which is occupied by any building, and any land falling within the curtilage of any dwelling house, and 
any land lawfully occupied for placer mining purposes, and also Indian reservations. 

9. Previous to any entry being made upon lands lawfully occupied, such free miner shall give ade- 
quate security, to the satisfaction of the Mining Recorder, for any loss or damage which may be caused 
by such entry ; and after such entry he shall make full compensation to the occupant or owner of 
such lands for any loss or damage which may be caused by reason of such entry ; such compensation, 
in case of dispute, to be determined by a court having jurisdiction in mining disputes, with or without a 
jury. 

NATURE AND SIZE OF CLAIMS. 

10. A creek or gulch claim shall be 250 feet long measured in the general direction of the creek 
or gulch. The boundaries of the claim which run in the general direction of the creek or gulch shall be 
lines along bed or rim rock three feet higher than the rim or edge of the creek, or the lowest general 
level of the gulch within the claim, so drawn or marked as to be at every point three feet above the rim 
or edge of the creek or the lowest general level of the gulch, opposite to it at right angles to the general 
direction of the claim for its length, but such boundaries shall not in any case exceed 1,000 feet on each 
side of the centre of the stream or gulch. (See Diagram No. i.) 

11. If the boundaries be less than one hundred feet apart horizontally, they shall be lines traced 
along bed or rim rock one hundred feet apart horizontally, following as nearly as practicable the direc- 
tion of the valley for the length of the claim. (See Diagram No. 2.) 

12. A river claim shall be situated only on one side of the river, and shall not exceed 250 feet in 
length, measured in the general direction of the river. The other boundary of the claim which runs in 
the general direction of the river shall be lines along bed or rim rock three feet higher than the rim or 
edge of the river within the claim so drawn or marked as to be at every point three feet above the rim or 
edge of the river opposite to it at right angles to the general direction of the claim for its length, but such 
boundaries shall not in any case be less than 250 feet, or exceed a distance of 1,000 feet from low water 
mark of the river. (See Diagram No. 3.) 

13. A '<hill claim" shall not exceed 250 feet in length, drawn parallel to the main direction of the 
stream or ravine on which it fronts. Parallel lines drawn from each end of the base line at right angles 
thereto, and running to the summit of the hill (provided the distance does not exceed 1,000 feet), shall 
constitute the end boundaries of the claim. 

14. All other placer claims shall be 250 feet square. 

15. Every placer claim shall be as nearly as possible rectangular in form, awd marked by two legal 
posts firmly fixed in the ground in the manner shown in diagram No. 4. The line between the two posts 
shall be well cut out so that one post may, if the nature of the surface will permit, be seen from the 
other. The flatted side of each post shall face the claim, and on each post shall' be written on the side 
facing the claim, a legible notice stating the name or number of the claim, or both if possible, its length 
in feet, the date when staked, and the full Christian and surname of the locator. 

16. Every alternate ten claims shall be reserved for the Government of Canada. That is to say, 
when a claim is located, the discoverer's claim and nine additional claims adjoining each other, and 
numbered consecutively, will be open for registration. Then the next ten claims of 250 feet each will 
be reserved for the Government, and so on. The alternate group of claims reserved for the Crown shall 
be disposed of in such manner as may be decided by the Minister of the Interior. 

17. The penalty for trespassing upon a claim reserved for the Crown shall be immediate cancella- 
tion by the Mining Recorder of any entry or entries which the person trespassing may have obtained, 
whether by original entry or purchase, for a mining claim, and the refusal by the Mining Recorder of 



REGULATIONS. 139 

the acceptance of any application which the person trespassing may at any time make for a claim. In 
addition to such penalty, the Mounted Police, upon a requisition from the Mining Recorder to that 
effect, shall take the necessary steps to eject the trespasser. 

18. In defining the size of claims, they shall be measured horizontally, irrespective of inequalities 
on the surface of the ground. 

19. If any free miner or party of free miners discover a new mine, and such discovery shall be es- 
tablished to the satisfaction of the Mining Recorder, creek, river, or hill, claims of the following size 
shall be allowed, namely : — 

To one discoverer, one claim, 500 feet in length. 

To a party of two discoverers, two claims, amounting together to i,ooo feet in length. 

To each member of a party beyond two in number, a claim of the ordinary size only. 

20. A new stratum of auriferous earth or gravel situated in a locality where the claims have been 
abandoned shall for this purpose be deemed a new mine, although the same locality shall have been pre- 
viously worked at a different level. 

21. The forms of application for a grant for placer mining, and the grant of the same, shall be 
those contained in forms " H " and " I " in the schedule hereto. 

22. A claim shall be recorded with the Mining Recorder in whose district it is situated, within ten 
days after the location thereof, if it is located within ten miles of the Mining Recorder's office. One 
€xtra day shall be allowed for every additional ten miles or fraction thereof. 

23. In the event of the claim being more than one hundred miles from a Recorder's office, and 
situated where other claims are being located, the free miners, not less than five in number, are author- 
ized to meet and appoint one of their number a " Free Miners' Recorder," who shall act in that capacity 
until a Mining Recorder is appointed by the Gold Commissioner. 

24. The "Free Miners' Recorder" shall, at the earliest possible date after his appointment, notify 
the nearest Government Mining Recorder thereof, and upon the arrival of the Government Mining Re- 
corder, he shall deliver to him his records and the fees received for recording the claims. The Govern- 
ment Mining Recorder shall then grant to each free miner whose name appears in the records, an entry 
for his claim on form " I " of these regulations, provided an application has been made by him in nccotd:- 
ance with form " H " thereof. The entry to date from the time the " Free Miners' Recorder " recorded 
the application. 

25. If the "Free Miners' Recorder" fails within three months to notify the nearest Government 
Mining Recorder of his appointment, the claims which he may have recorded will be cancelled. 

26. During the absence of the Mining Recorder from his office, the entry for a claim may be 
granted by any person whom he may appoint to perform his duties in his absence. 

27. Entry shall not be granted for a claim which has not been staked by the applicant in person 
in the manner specified in these regulations. An affidavit that the claim was staked out by the appli- 
cant shall be embodied in form " H " in the schedule hereto. 

28. An entry fee of fifteen dollars shall be charged the first year, and an annual fee of fifteen 
dollars for each of the following years. This provision shall apply to claims for which entries have 
already been granted. 

29. A statement of the entries granted and fees collected shall be rendered by the Mining 
Recorder to the Gold Commissioner at least every three months, which shall be accompanied by the 
amount collected. 

30. A royalty of ten per cent, on the gold mined shall be levied and collected on the gross output 
of each claim. The royalty may be paid at banking offices to be established under the auspices of the 
Government of Canada, or to the Gold Commissioner, or to any Mining Recorder authorized by him. 
The sum of $2,500.00 shall be deducted from the gross annual output of a claim when estimating the 
amount upon which royalty is to be calculated, but this exemption shall not be allowed unless the 
royalty is paid at a banking office or to the Gold Commissioner or Mining Recorder. When the royalty 
is paid monthly or at longer periods, the deduction shall be made ratable on the basis of $2,500.00 per 
annum for the claim. If not paid to the bank. Gold Commissioner or Mining Recorder, it shall be 
collected by the customs officials or police officers when the miner passes the posts established at the 
boundary of a district. Such royalty to form part of the consolidated revenue, and to be accounted 
for by the officers who collect the same in due course. The time and manner in which such royalty 
shall be collected shall be provided for by regulations to be made by the Gold Commissioner. 

31. Default in payment of such royalty, if continued for ten days after notice has been posted on 
the claim in respect of which it is demanded, or in the vicinity of such claim, by the Gold Commis- 
sioner or his agent, shall be followed by cancellation of the claim. Any attempt to defraud the Crown 
by withholding any part of the revenue thus provided for, by making false statements of the amount 
taken out, shall be punished by cancellation of the claim in respect of which fraud or false statements 
have been committed or made. In respect to the facts as to such fraud or false statements or non- 
payment of royalty, the decision of the Gold Commissioner shall be final. 

32. After the recording of a claim the removal of any post by the holder thereof, or by any person 
acting in his behalf for the purpose of changing the boundaries of his claim, shall act as a forfeiture 
of the claim. 

33; The entry of every holder of a grant for placer mining must be renewed and his receipt 
relinquished and replaced every year, the entry fee being paid each time. 

34. The holder of a creek, gulch or river claim may, within sixty days after staking out the 
claim, obtain an entry for a hill claim adjoining it, by paying to the Mining Recorder the sum of one 
hundred dollars. This permission shall also be given to the holder of a creek, gulch or river claim 



140 



CANADA'S GREAT GOLD FIELD. 



DIAGRAM No. I. 

PLAN OF CREEK OR GULCH CLAIM. 




SECTIONAL PLAN OF A CREEK CLAIM. 




SECTIONAL PLAN OF A GULCH CLAIM. 



THE YUKON DISTRICT. 



141 



DIAGRAM No. 2. 

PLAN SHEWING SIDE BOUNDARIES LESS THAN 
100 FEET APART. 

100 feet 




DIAGRAM No. 3. 

SECTIONAL PLAN OF A RIVER CLAIM. 




DIAGRAM No. 4. 

SHOWING HOW CLAIMS ARE TO BE STAKED. 
PLAN OF A CREEK OR GULCH CLAIM. 




.-^-r: 



PLAN OF A RIVER CLAIM. 




142 REGULATIONS. 

obtained under former regulations, provided that the hill claim is available at the time an applica- 
tion is made therefor. 

35. No miner shall receive a grant of more than one mining claim in a mining district, the 
boundaries of which shall be defined by the Mining Recorder, but the same miner may also hold a hill 
claim, acquired by him under these regulations in connection vv^ith a creek, gulch or river claim, and 
any number of claims by purchase ; and any number of miners may unite to work their claims in 
common, upon such terms as they may arrange, provided such agreement is registered with the Mining 
Recorder and a fee of five dollars paid for each registration. 

36. Any free miner or miners may sell, mortgage, or dispose of his or their claims, provided such 
disposal be registered with, and a fee of two dollars paid to the Mining Recorder, who shall thereupon 
give the assignee a certificate in the form " J " in the schedule hereto. 

37. Every free miner shall, during the continuance of his grant, have the exclusive right of entry 
upon his own claim for the miner-like working thereof, and the construction of a residence thereon, 
and shall be entitled exclusively to all the proceeds realized therefrom, upon which, however, the 
royalty prescribed by these regulations shall be payable ; provided that the Mining Recorder may grant 
to the holders of other claims such right of entry thereon as may be absolutely necessary for the working 
of their claims, upon such terms as may to him seem reasonable. He may also grant permits to 
miners to cut timber thereon for their own use. 

38. Every free miner shall be entitled to the use of so much of the water naturally flowing 
through or past his claim, and not already lawfully appropriated, as shall, in the opinion of the Mining 
Recorder, be necessary for the due working thereof, and shall be entitled to drain his own claim free 
of charge. 

39. A claim shall be deemed to be abandoned and open to occupation and entry by any person 
when the same shall have remained unworked on working days, excepting during the close season, by 
the grantee thereof or by some person on his behalf for the space of * seventy-two hours, unless sickness 
or other reasonable cause be shown to the satisfaction of the Mining Recorder, or unless the grantee 
is absent on leave given by the Mining Recorder, and the Mining Recorder, upon obtaining evidence 
satisfactory to himself, that this provision is not being complied with, may cancel the entry given 
for a claim. 

40. If any cases arise for which no provision is made in these regulations, the provisions of the 
regulations governing the disposal of mineral lands other than coal lands, approved by His Excellency 
the Governor in Council on the 9th of November, 1889, °^ such other regulations as may be substituted 
therefor, shall apply. 



FORM H.— APPLICATION FOR GRANT FOR PLACER MINING, AND 
AFFIDAVIT OF APPLICANT. 

I (or we) of hereby 

apply, under the Yukon Placer Mining Regulations, for a grant of a claim for placer mining as defined 
in the said regulations, in (here describe locality) and I (or we) solemnly swear : — 

1. That from indications I (or we) have observed on the claim applied for, I (or we) have reason to 
believe that there is therein a deposit of gold. 

2. That I (or we) am (or are) to the best of my (or our) knowledge and belief the first to observe 
such indications, or : — 

3. That the said claim was previously granted to (here name the last grantee) but has remained 
unworked by the said grantee for not less than 

4. That I (or we) am (or are) unaware that the land is other than vacant Dominion Lands. 

5. That I (or we) did on the day of mark 

out on the ground, in accordance in every particular with the provisions of the mining regulations for the 
Yukon District, the claim for which I (or we) make this application, and in so doing I (or we) did not 
encroach on any other claim or mining location previously laid out by any other person. 

6. That the length of the said claim, as nearly as I (or we) could measure is feet, and 

that the description of this date hereto attached, signed by me (or us) sets (or set) forth in detail, to the 
best of my (or our) knowledge and ability, its position. 

7. That I (or we) make this application in good faith, to acquire the claim for the sole purpose of 
mining to be prosecuted by myself (or us) or by myself and associates, or by my (or our) assigns. 

Sworn before me \ 

this"'." ■.■■.■.■.■.■ ■."day f (Signature) 
of 18.... \ 



* 72 hours means three consecutive days of 24 hours each. 



REGULATIONS. 143 

FORM I.— GRANT FOR PLACER MINING. 
No 

Department of the Interior, 

Agency 18 

In consideration of the payment of the fee of fifteen dollars prescribed by clause 28 of the mining 

regulations for the Yukon District, by (A. B.) of 

accompanying his (or their) application No dated 18 , for amining claim 

in (here insert description of locality). 

The Minister of Interior hereby grants to the said (A. B.) for the term of one 

year from the date hereof, the exclusive right of entry upon the claim (here describe in 

detail the claim granted) for the miner-like working thereof, and the construction of a residence there- 
on, and the exclusive right to all the proceeds realized therefrom, upon which, however, the royalty pre- 
scribed by the regulations shall be paid. 

f The said (A. B.) shall be entitled to the use of so much of the water 

naturally flowing through or past his (or their) claim, and not already lawfully appropriated, as shall be 
necessary for the due working thereof, and to drain his (or their) claim, free of charge. 

This grant does not convey to the said (A. B.) any right of ownership 

in the soil covered by the said claim, and the said grant shall lapse and be forfeited unless the claim is 

continuously and in good faith worked by the said (A. B.) or his (or their) 

associates. 

The rights hereby granted are those laid down in the aforesaid mining regulations, and no 
more, and are subject to all the provisions of the said regulations, whether the same are expressed 
herein or not. 



Mining Recorder. 



FORM J.— CERTIFICATE OF THE ASSIGNMENT OF A PLACER MINING CLAIM. 

No 

Department of the Interior, 

Agen jy 1 8 

This is to certify that (B. C.) of ;....has (or have) filed an assign- 
ment in due form dated 18 , and accompanied by a registration fee of two dollars, 

of the grant to (A. B.) of of the right to mine in (here insert 

description of claim) for one year from the 18..., 

This certificate entitles the said (B. C.) to all the rights and privileges 

of the said (A. B.) in respect to the claim assigned, that is to say, to the 

exclusive right of entry upon the said claim for the miner-like vrorking thereof and the construction of a 
residence thereon, and the exclusive right to all the proceeds realized therefrom (upon which, however, 
the royalty prescribed by the regulations shall be paid) for the remaining portion of the year for which 

the said claim was granted to the said (A. B.) that is to say, until 

the day of. 18 

The said (B. C.) shall be entitled to the use of so much of the water naturally 

flowing through or past his (or their) claim and not already lawfully appropriated, as shall be necessary 
for the due working thereof and to drain his claim, free of charge. 

This grant does not convey to the said (B. C.) any right of ownership 

in the soil covered by the said claim, and the said grant shall lapse and be forfeited unless the claim is 

continuously and in good faith worked by the said (B. C.) or his (or 

their) associates. 

The rights hereby granted are those laid down in the Yukon Placer Mining Regulations, and 
no more, and are subject to all the provisions of the said regulations, whether the same are expressed 
herein or not. 



Mining Recorder. 



REGULATIONS 



GOVERNING THE ISSUE OF LEASES TO DREDGE FOR MINERALS IN THE BEDS 

OF RIVERS IN THE PROVISIONAL DISTRICT OF YUKON, 

NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES. 

(^Approved of by Order in Council No. 12^, of the i8th January, i8g8.) 



The following regulations are adopted for the issue of leases to persons or companies who have ob- 
tained a free miner's certificate in accordance with the provisions of the regulations governing placer min- 
ing in the Provisional District of Yukon, to dredge for minerals other than coal in the submerged beds 
or bars of rivers in the Provisional District of Yukon, in the North-west Territories : — 

I. The lessee shall be given the exclusive right to subaqueous mining and dredging for all minerals 
with the exception of coal in and along an unbroken extent of five miles of a river following its sinuosi- 



144 REGULATIONS. 

ties, to be measured down the middle thereof, and to be described by the lessee in such manner as to be 
easily traced on the ground ; and although the lessee may also obtain as many as five other leases, each for 
an unbroken extent of five miles of a river, so measured and described, no more than six such leases will be 
issued in favour of an individual or company, so that the maximum extent of river in and along which 
any individual or company shall be given the exclusive right above mentioned, shall under no circum- 
stances exceed thirty miles. The lease shall provide for the survey of the leasehold under instructions 
from the Surveyor General, and for the filing of the returns of survey in the Department of the Interior 
within one year from the date of the lease. 

2. The lease shall be for a term of twenty years, at the end of which time all rights vested in or 
which may be claimed by the lessee under his lease, are to cease and determine. The lease may be 
renewable, however, from time to time thereafter in the discretion of the Minister of the Interior. 

3. The lessee's right of mining and dredging shall be confined to the submerged beds or bars in the 
river below water mark, that boundary to be fixed by its position on the first day of August in the year 
of the date of the lease. 

4. The lease shall be subject to the rights of all persons who have received or who may receive 
entries for claims under the Placer Mining Regulations. 

5. The lessee shall have at least one dredge in operation upon the five miles of river leased to him, 
within two seasons from the date of his lease, and if, during one season when operations can be carried 
on, he fails to efficiently work the same to the satisfaction of the Minister of the Interior, the lease shall 
become null and void unless the Minister of the Interior shall otherwise decide. Provided that when 
any company or individual has obtained more than one lease, one dredge for each fifteen miles or portion 
thereof shall be held to be compliance with this regulation. 

6. The lessee shall pay a rental of $100.00 per annum for each mile of river so leased to him. The 
lessee shall also pay to the Crown a royalty of ten per centum on the output in excess of $15,000.00, 
as shown by sworn returns to be furnished monthly by the lessee to the Gold Commissioner during 
the period that dredging operations are being carried on ; such royalty, if any, to be paid with each 
return. 

7. The lessee who is the holder of more than one lease shall be entitled to the exemption as to roy- 
alty provided for by the next preceding regulation to the extent of $15,000.00 for each five miles of river 
for which he is the holder of a lease ; but the lessee under one lease shall not be entitled to the exemp- 
tion as to royalty provided by the next two preceding regulations, where the dredge or dredges used by 
him have been used in dredging by another lessee, or in any case in respect of more than thirty miles. 

8. The lessee shall be permitted to cut free of all dues, on any land belonging to the Crown, such 
timber as may be necessary for the purposes of his lease, but such permission shall not extend to timber 
which may have been heretofore or may hereafter be granted to other persons or corporations. 

9. The lessee shall not interfere in any way with the general right of the public to use the river in 
which he may be permitted to dredge, for navigation or other purposes ; the free navigation of the river 
shall not be impeded by the deposit of tailings in such manner as to form bars or banks in the channel 
thereof, and the current or stream shall not be obstructed in any material degree by the accumulation of 
such deposits. 

10. The lease shall provide that any person who has received or may receive entry under the Placer 
Mining Regulations shall be entitled to run tailings into the river at any point thereon, and to construct 
all works which may be necessary for properly operating and working his claim. Provided that it shall 
not be lawful for such person to construct a wing-dam within one thousand feet from the place where any 
dredge is being operated, nor to obstruct or interfere in any way with the operation of any dredge. 

11. The lease shall reserve all roads, ways, bridges, drains and other public works, and all improve- 
ments now existing, or which may hereafter be made, in, upon or under any part of the river, and the 
power to enter and construct the same, and shall provide that the lessee shall not damage or obstruct 
any public ways, drains, bridges, works and improvements now or hereafter to be made upon, in, over, 
through or under the river ; and that he will substantially bridge or cover and protect all the cuts, flumes, 
ditches and sluices, and all pits and dangerous places at all points where they may be crossed by a pub- 
lic highway or frequented path or trail, to the satisfaction of the Minister of the Interior. 

12. That the lessee, his executors, administrators or assigns shall not nor will assign, transfer or 
sublet the demised premises, or any part thereof, without the consent in writing of the Minister first had 
and obtained. 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 



A Klondike Miner. 




It IS altogether admirable when a man, bv dint of sheer will wrino-s a 

fortune from niggardly circumstances. The " Klondike is full of' instances 

where men have done this, but never in history was this accomplished 

by a weak and unhealthy man. Ill-health not only weakens every 

physical function but every mental faculty and every moral 

quality. 

If a man will stop and reason for a moment, he does not have 
to be a physician to understand the causes of impure blood or 
Its far-reaching effects. When a man's digestion is disordered 
his liver sluggish, his bowels inactive, the blood is deprived of 
the proper food elements, and the sluggish liver and bowels sup- 
f ply m their place, the foulest of poisons. The blood is the life- 
6 stream. When it is full of foul poisons, it carries and deposits 
them in every organ and tissue of the body. Bone, sinew muscle 
and flesh-tissue, the brain cells and the nerve-iibers are all fed 
^ upon bad, poisonous food. Serious ill-health is bound to result 
The man is weakened in every fiber of his body. He is weakened 
physically, mentally and morally. He <x ^<_ 

suffers from sick headache, distress in ^^"'''^^^■^^"^■"~'\^"" 
stomach after meals, giddiness and drow- "^^ ^/"^ _ .x::^ 
siness, loss of appetite and sleep, bad taste 
in the mouth, shakiness in the morning, 
and dullness throughout the day, and lassitude, and an indisposition 
to work. Sooner or later these conditions develop consumption, 
nervous prostration, malaria, rheumatism, or some blood or skin dis- 
ease. Dr. Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery is the best of all known 
medicines for ambitious, hard-working men and women. It is the 
great blood-maker and flesh-builder. It makes the appetite keen and 
hearty, and the digestion and assimilation perfect, the liver active, 
the blood pure and rich, the nerves steady, the body vigorous and 
the brain alert. 

If men would only realize that ill-health robs them not only of life, 
but of their fortune as well, there would be fewer penniless widows (^\ 

eej, ^ — .. and orphans to drag out cheer- ~~- ■ 

less lives. When a man holds a 
dollar close up to his eyes, it 



eyes, 
shuts out the light of good judgment, and looks bigger 
P than life or death, or wife or child. The facts are that 
ill-health very soon puts a stop to a man's money-making powers and 
turns them into money-losing disabilities. 

The hunter, the trapper, the fisherman, the lumberman and all 
out-door workers who are exposed to the rigors of either an extremely 
cold or an extremely hot climate, need to exercise especial vigilance 
in the care of their health. A cautious man going into Klondike 
should carry with him a vest-pocket remedy in the shape of a few 
vials of Dr. Pierce's Pleasant Pellets. 

Dr. Pierce's Pleasant Pellets cure constipation and biliousness. 
Constipation is the cause of manv diseases. Cure the cause and 
you cure the disease. One "Pellet" is a gentle laxative, and two 
a mild cathartic. In obstinate cases use the " Discovery " in con- 
nection with the "Pellets." Druggists sell them. 
" In the year of 1892 I came home from a hard day's ride, attending my official business as an 
officer of my county, in which capacity I have acted eight years," writes Mr. R. D, Hill, of Zanto, 
lyouisa Co., Va. I had a chill that night that was the commencement of Malarial Fever I called 
m the doctor, but did not get any relief. I called a second doctor, but still got no relief. A third 
doctor said I had liver disease, and treated me for that ; but did me no good. I then commenced 
taking Dr. Pierce's Golden Medical Discovery, in connection with 'Pleasant Pellets.' I took three 
bottles and it did me much good. I had been very restless, could not sleep at night and had no ap- 
petite. I had not been able to do anything for eighteen months. I do not think I could possibly 
have lived if it had not been for the ' Golden Medical Discovery.' I think it is a capital medicine 
for the liver. I can now do as good a day's work as any man. I recommend it to all who are suflfer- 
mg from liver complaint." 
Address all letters to 

WORLD'S DISPENSARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, 66z Main St., Buffalo, N. Y. 






ADVERTISEMENTS. 



§S: 



H 



We insure men going even to the Klondike, so you 
can stay at home or go North, young man, and still 
be under the protection of the 



I. 0. F. 



COST TO aOIJS^ THE I. O. F. 

A Candidate for initiation into an existing Court, and taking $r. coo of Mortuary Benefit, 
must pay the following fees : — 

I. — The deposit fee, which must accompany his application for Membership $r.oo 

2. — The Initiation Fee, which must be not less than ...... 2.00 

3. — The Registration Fee, which is 50 cents for each $500 of Mortuary Benefit 

taken i.oo 

4. — The Certificate Fee, which pays for the Certificate of Membership i.oo 

5. — The Medical Examination Fee, which is 1.50 



$6.50 

If taking $2,000 Mortuary Benefit, the cost would be $8.co 

If taking $3,000 Mortuary Benefit, the cost would be 9.00 

If taking $4,000 Mortuary Benefit, the cost would be 11. co 

If taking $5,oco Mortuary Benefit, the cost wou'd be 12.00 

THE BEST FRATERNAL SOCIETY IN THE WORLD. 



THE MAGNIFICENT 

paid last year (1896) 



hfENEFITS PAID. 



Benefits paitl last year (1896) $ 820,941 91 

Benefits paid last five years 3,754,039 14 

Benefits paid last ten years 3,462,143 79 

Benefits paid from organization to 31st October, 1897 4,935,344 13 

THE GROWTH OF THE MEMBERSHIP. 



Membersliip Ist July, 1881 ... . 369 

Membership 3 1st Dec, 1881 ... 1,019 

Memliersliip 31st Dec, 1886.... 5,804 

Membersliip 3l8t Dec, 1891 33,303 

Membership 31st Dec, 1896 .. 103,838 



Date of lie-organization. 

Increase, 6 months 650 

Increase, 5 years 4,785 

Increase, 5 years 36,499 

Increase, 5 years 70,535 



THE INCREASES DURING 1896. 

Increase in Benefits Paid 

Increase in Assessinent Income 

Increase in Total Income 

Increase iu Net Assets 

Increase in Sur'plus Funds 

Increase ia Assurance in Force 



S 135,941 73 
338,9553 00 
347,901 19 
438,114 34 
455,110 93 
30,763,500 00 



THE 


MEMBERS AND THEIR 


ASSURANCE 


AT 31 ST 


DECEMBER EACH YEAR. 


Year. 


Total 
Mem- 
bership. 


Assurance 
Carried. 


Total 
Surplus. 


Surplus 

per 
Capita. 


Death 

Rate 

per 1000. 

4-50 


1881 


1,019 


$1,140,000 


$ 4,568 55 


$ 4 48 


1887. 


1,134 


1,276,000 


2 967 93 


2 61 


11,00 


1883 


2,210 


2,490,000 


10,857 65 


4 Qt 


4-73 


1884 


2 558 


2,923,000 


23,081 85 


9 02 


4-23 


1885 


3,042 


4,283,000 


29,802 42 


8 18 


7-76 


1886 


5 1804 


6,764,000 


53,981 28 


■9 30 


4.85 


1887 


7,811 


Q,I20,C00 


81,384 4t 


10 41 


5-78 


1888 


1 1 , 800 


13,714.000 


117,821 96 


9 98 


643 


18S9 


I7>349 


20,078,000 


188.130 36 


10 84 


5.85 


i8go 


24,604 


28,498,000 


283,967 20 


II 54 


5.x8 


1891 


32,303 


3<3,395,o» 


408,798 20 


12 65 


6.40 


1892 


43,°24 


53,243 000 


580,597 85 


13 49 


6.25 


1893 


54,484 


67,781,000 


858,857 89 


15 76 


5-47 


1894 


7-3,055 


86,506,500 


1,187,225 II 


16 94 


5-47 


1895 


86,521 


108,027,500 


I 5^0,373 46 


)8 03 


5.67 


i8;6 


102,838 


128,791,000 


2,015,484 38 


19 60 


5 50 


iSq7 


1 24.68 •; 


Ti;4.CTO.OOO 


2.';q8,8^2 78 


20 ■;2 


5..S6 



For further information, Liter- 
ature, etc., apply to 

ORONHYATEKHA, M D., 

S. C. R., Toronto, Canada. 

HON. D. D. AITKEN, 

S. V. C. R., Flint, Mich. 

JOHN A. McGILLIVRAY, Q. C, 
Supreme Secretary, 

Toronto, Canada. 

A. E. STEVENSON, 
American Agent, 
6340 Monroe Avenue, 

Chicago, Illinois. 

JAMES MARSHALL, 

General Manager for Great 
Britain, 24 Charing Cross, 
London, England. 



:2f 



^ 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 



The Merchants Bank of Halifax 



INCORPORATED 1809. 



Capital Paid Up, . . $1,500,000.00 
Rest, I 175,000.00 



HEAD OFFICE, HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA. 
THOS. E. KENNY, President. D. H. DUNCAN, Cashier. 

Branches in the Province of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward 
Island, Quebec and British Columbia, and at St. John's, Nfld. 



BANKERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. 

London Bank of Scotland. 

Paris, Credit Lyonnais. 

Bermuda, Bank of Bermuda. 

New York Chase National Bank. 

San Francisco, .... Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. 

Boston, National Hide and Leather Bank. 

Chicago, . . American Exchange National Bank. 

China and Japan, . . . Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. 



A General Banking Business Transacted. 

Sterling Bills of Exchange Bought and Sold. 

Letters of Credit, Etc., Negotiated. 

, Money Deposited with the Bank of Scotland, Bishopsgate Street, London, can 
be'.Transferred by Draft, Letter of Credit or Cable to any Branch of this Bank. 



. . . BRANCHES IN . . . 
BRITISH COLUMBIA, VANCOUVER, NELSON, ROSSLAND. 



IV 



ADVERTISEMENTS. 




: 2 POINTS. 



Backache and Lame Back come 
from disordered Kidneys. 

Doan's Kidney Pills positively 
cure all Kidney Complaints. 

Testimony proves it to the world. 
Fifty cents will prove it to you. 

Foster-MilburnCo.,Buflfalo,N.Y., 
Sole Agents for United States. 



Price, 50 cents per box, or six boxes for 
$2.50. Sent by mail on receipt of price. 
For sale by all dealers. 



FOR ADVERTISING RATES 



In Subsequent Editions 
of the . . . 



K 



LONDIKE ^ -^ ^ 

OFFICIAL GUIDE, 



Both in Canada 

and the United States, 

address 

DAN A. ROSE, 

The Matthews-Northrup Co., 

BUFFALO, N. Y. 






PRICE, 50 CEf^TS 



U 



ANi?- EXPLORER. 









1^5,57- 



PUBlJ5hEu BY AUTHORITY 

km Departmentof Interior 

:tiEPOMlNi()NoF(ANADA. 



DLirfALO: 

ATTnEW5-NOPJnRUPfO- 



ia9G. 



THE PROPER WAY TO GO 
TO THE 

KLONDIKE 

IS VIA THE 

CANADIAN PACIFIC 

RAILWAY 

FROM THE EASTERN STATES, AND 

SOO PACIFIC ROUTE 

FROM THE MIDDLE STATES. 

The Canadian Pacific Railway Co.'s steamships will leave Vancouver and Victoria 
twice each week for Wrangle, connecting there with their Stikine River Steamers. 

OTjnPFITS ^^^^ suited for the Klondike, and which will not be subject to Canadian 
Customs duty of 30 per cent., can be purchased in Vancouver, Victoria 
and other Canadian cities. 

CHOICE OF ROUTES ''^f'''i,'''^fl'^^\^\^';:'''^y'^' 

Dalton 1 rail, bt. Michaels and overland route 
via Edmonton, Prince Albert, Kamloops, Ashcroft. 

DO NOT TAKE TICKETS i"^.r '^'^'c'^'^^^^?'!?'^^^" ^^"^'" 

Railway or boo racihc Route. 

pj? 'ppjgD ■pj^r^'p in steamship accommodation will be given to those travel- 
ing by Canadian Pacific or Soo Pacific Overland Routes. 

SECURE C. P. R. "KLONDIKE" PAMPHLET, containing large map and 
all the latest information from — 

MINNEAPOLIS : W. R. CALLAWAY, PITTSBURG : Room 505 Fergusson Building, 

Oen'l Pass'r Agent " Soo Line." F. W. SALSBURY. 

ST. PAUL: W. S. THORN, PHILADELPHIA: Cor. Third and Ciiestnut Streets, 

Ass't Gen'I Pass'r Agent "Soo Line." H. McMURTRIE. 

MARQUETTE : O. W. HIBBARD, NEW YORK : 353 Broadway, 

Gen'I Pass'r Agent " Marquette Route." E. V. SKINNER. 

CHICAGO : 232 South Clark Street, BOSTON : 197 Washington Street, 

J. P. LEE. H. J. COLVIN. 

DETROIT: 11 Fort Street, ST. JOHN, N. B. : A. H. NOTMAN, 

A. E. EDMONDS. Ass't Gen'I Pass'r Agent. 

BUFFALO: 23 Exchange Street, TORONTO, ONT. : C. E. McPHERSON, 

D. B. WORTHINGTON. Ass't Gen'I Pass'r Agent. 

R. KERR, Traffic Manager, B. E. E. USSHER, Gen'I Pass'r Agent, 

Winnipeg. Montreal. 

D. McNICOLL, Passenger Traffic Manager, Montreal. ^ 



Imperial Bank of Canada 



Head Office -- Toronto, Ont. 



Capital, $2,000,000 Reserve, $1,200,000 



Klondike 



Yukon.... 



THE IMPERIAL BANK OF 
CANADA has branches in MON- 
TREAL, WINNIPEG, PRINCE 
ALBERT, EDMONTON, CAL- 
GARY, REVELSTOKE and VAN- 
COUVER, at all of which outfitting 
points financial arrangements can be 
made by parties about to visit the 
GOLD FIELDS. 



Money Received and Deposit 
Receipts issued, NEGOTIABLE AT 
ANY OF THE HUDSON'S BAY 
COMPANY'S POSTS in British 
Columbia and the North-west Terri- 
tories of Canada. 



D. R. ^WriLKIE 

General Manager 



iVlondike . . 
Gold Fields 



aa- 



HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 



?». 



;^i!t 



INCORPORATED A. D. 1670 








Fully Equipped Stores 



FO R 



Miners and Prospectors 



-IP 



At WINI54IPEQ VICTORIA 

CALGARY VANCOUVER 

EDMONTON and Other Points 



Full Information will be Given at any of the Offices of the Company 
in Canada, or at the LONDON OFFICE, 1,LIME STREET, E.C. 



t S '07 



